Personally, I don't think that I'd be too hard on The Doctor for using what I assume was, in 1937, a common iconic way of signaling that a character was from China. You can't expect a long text-based character exposition in a Seuss story.
His sensibilities may not have changed right away. He drew war propoganda in 1941 and 1942. http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/ Of course, these weren't aimed at kids. RS ps. I started on TIPS in 1993 or 1994. On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 11:41 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > On the other hand, in a previous millenium, when I was reading to my > children, I found myself disturbed by racist elements in one of the > earliest Seuss efforts, the otherwise delightful "And to think that I saw > it on Mulberry Street". > > It was a long time ago (Wikipedia gives the original publication date as > 1937, although I read it much later than that), but I remember something > about a cartoon "Chinaman" with yellow skin and long pigtails. > > Fortunately, it looks as though Seuss's sensibilities changed along with > society in general as reflected in his later books. But it's still in > print. > > Stephen > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. > Professor of Psychology, Emeritus > Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] > 2600 College St. > Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 > Canada > > Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of > psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) > -- Rick Stevens Psychology Department University of Louisiana at Monroe [email protected] SL - Evert Snook --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
