MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) US President Joe Biden did not mention popular children's book author Dr. Seuss in a traditional address on the Read Across America Day on Tuesday as reckonings of racism over the writer's legacy transpire.
The Read Across America Day was launched on March 2, 1998, which is the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, known under his pen name of Dr. Seuss, to promote reading among the US youth.
While Biden said that "for countless Americans, the path to literacy begins with storytime in their school classroom," he did not mention Dr. Seuss, in contrast to his predecessors Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
Dr. Seuss' legacy has come under scrutiny in recent years over what researchers of his work see as racial bias and insensitivity. A 2019 study found that of 2,240 characters in 50 of his books only 2 percent were characters of color. All are male and presented in subservient, exotified or dehumanized roles.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the organization that preserves the writer's legacy, said in a statement that it will discontinue the publication of the six most criticized books for portraying people in ways that are "hurtful and wrong."
Among the titles is his award-winning first book, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street." Others are "If I Ran the Zoo," "McElligot's Pool," "On Beyond Zebra!," "Scrambled Eggs Super!," and "The Cat's Quizzer."
The children's literature luminary has written over 60 books over his career that have sold over 600 million copies to date.
