{"id":41438,"date":"2021-02-27T06:45:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T11:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=41438"},"modified":"2021-02-27T06:45:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T11:45:34","slug":"not-dr-seuss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=41438","title":{"rendered":"Not Dr. Seuss!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday The Daily Wire<\/a> reported that Loudoun County Public School Board in Virginia has concluded that Dr. Suess\u2019s children\u2019s books contain \u201cracial undertones\u201d that are not suitable for \u201cculturally responsive\u201d learning.<\/p>\n

The article reports the announcement made by the Board:<\/p>\n

\u201cRealizing that many schools continue to celebrate \u2018Read Across America Day\u2019 in partial recognition of Dr. Seuss\u2019 birthday, it is important for us to be cognizant of research that may challenge our practice in this regard,\u201d the announcement reads. \u201cAs we become more culturally responsive and racially conscious, all building leaders should know that in recent years there has been research revealing radical undertones in the books written and the illustrations drawn by Dr. Seuss.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Learning for Justice was formerly known as \u201cTeaching Tolerance,\u201d which has promoted radical views on teaching \u201csocial justice\u201d and \u201cracial justice\u201d to students as young as five-years-old. Learning for Justice is the education arm of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a magazine article titled, \u201cIt\u2019s Time to Talk About Dr. Seuss<\/a>,\u201d Learning for Justice cites a study<\/a> from St. Catherine University that claims Dr. Seuss\u2019s children\u2019s literature is rife with \u201corientalism, anti-blackness, and white supremacy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The researchers surveyed 50 Dr. Seuss books and concluded that there is not enough diversity in the children\u2019s books, many of which were written in the 1950s.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In case your missed it, Learning for Justice is the education arm of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). That explains a lot.<\/p>\n

The researchers identified what they considered the problem:<\/p>\n

\u201cOf the 2,240 (identified) human characters, there are 45 of color representing two percent of the total number of human characters,\u201d the study reads. Of the 45 characters of color, 43 \u201cexhibited behaviors and appearances that align with harmful and stereotypical Orientalist tropes.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Learning for Justice alleges that many of the non-white characters in Dr. Seuss\u2019s books were men and were \u201csubservient\u201d to the white characters in his book.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article concludes:<\/p>\n

Learning for Justice claims that anyone who defends Dr. Seuss\u2019s problematic work is a racial \u201capologist\u201d and is making excuses for why \u201cbigotry doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The education group also tells teachers to directly discuss Dr. Seuss\u2019s \u201cracist\u201d past with older students, though \u201colder students\u201d remains an undefined category. Teachers were asked to explain to students how racism shows up in places and people they may least expect.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can address these arguments directly, discussing the degree to which cultural norms excuse biased language or actions, how harmful stereotypical representation can be and whether \u2014 and how \u2014 a person can make up for hurtful mistakes.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is getting ridiculous!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday The Daily Wire reported that Loudoun County Public School Board in Virginia has concluded that Dr. Suess\u2019s children\u2019s books contain \u201cracial undertones\u201d that are not suitable for \u201cculturally responsive\u201d learning. The article reports the announcement made by the Board: … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11130,13501,13500,1905,5482,11823],"class_list":["post-41438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dr-seuss","tag-learning-for-justice","tag-loudon-county-public-schools","tag-racism","tag-southern-poverty-law-center","tag-the-daily-wire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41438"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41440,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41438\/revisions\/41440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}