A Massachusetts museum dedicated to Dr. Seuss says it will replace a mural featuring a Chinese character from one of his books after three authors said they would boycott an event due to the ‘jarring racial stereotype.’
The mural features illustrations from the author’s first children’s book, ‘And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.’
The museum, which is located in the author’s hometown of Springfield, said Thursday that the mural will be replaced by images from later books.
‘And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street’ features a Chinese caricature that three authors deemed a ‘jarring racial stereotype’
The caricature they’re talking about is bottom left. In in their statement, the authors said: ‘the selected art is a jarring racial stereotype of a Chinese man, who is depicted with chopsticks, a pointed hat, and slanted slit eyes’
Pictured here is The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, in Springfield, Massachusetts
Three children’s authors, Mo Willems, Mike Curato and Lisa Yee, declined an invitation to the museum’s inaugural Children’s Literature Festival, which was originally set for October 14.
In a joint letter that Willems posted on Twitter Thursday, the trio said: ‘we recently learned that a key component of this institution honoring Dr. Seuss features a mural depicting a scene from his first book, ‘And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,’ and within the selected art is a jarring racial stereotype of a Chinese man, who is depicted with chopsticks, a pointed hat, and slanted slit eyes. We find this caricature of ‘the Chinaman’ deeply hurtful, and have concerns about children’s exposure to it.’
He continued: ‘Two of us are Asian American (one is Chinese American) and two of us are the children of immigrants. We celebrate our ethnic differences and artistic commonalities as authors called to provide and represent the best for all our readers.’
Artist John Simpson works on the murals in the planned Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum housed in the William Pynchon Memorial Building
Mo Willems posted a letter on Twitter from himself, Mike Curato and Lisa Yee, declining their invitation to the museum’s inaugural Children’s Literature Festival
‘We will not endorse racism in any form. Therefore, we have informed the museum that none of will be appearing at the October 14 event.’
The three authors signed their names at the bottom of the joint letter.
They had all been invited to appear at festival at the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The ‘jarring racial stereotype’ appears in Dr. Seuss’ book And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street
Mo (pictured here) said: ‘We will not endorse racism in any form. Therefore, we have informed the museum that none of will be appearing at the October 14 event’
Mike (pictured here) along with Mo and Lisa had all been invited to appear at the festival at the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts October 14
In light of the issue that Lisa (pictured here) Mo and Mike addressed, the festival has now been cancelled
In light of this issue the festival has now been cancelled, which the museum announced on their program calendar.
This also comes after a librarian rejected a donation of Dr. Seuss books sent by First Lady Melania Trump as she called them ‘tired’ and ‘cliche.’
The White House earlier this month announced that one school from each state would receive a shipment of Dr. Seuss books as part of National Read a Book Day.
Cambridgeport Elementary School librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro (pictured here), rejected Dr Seuss donations from Melania Trump
Along with the donation came a letter from the First Lady, which emphasized to students that receiving ‘an education is perhaps the most important and wondrous opportunity of your young lives’.
‘Remember,’ the letter says, ‘the key to achieving you dreams begins with learning to read. Find what you enjoy, anything that interests you, and read about it.’
‘Never stop learning and challenging yourself, and never give up on your dreams,’ the letter concludes.
But Cambridgeport Elementary School librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro, whose school represents Massachusetts in the initiative, said that her award winning library wasn’t in need of the literature.
Melania Trump, the wife of US President Donald Trump, hands out Dr. Seuss books to patients at the Queen Fabiola Childrens Hospital in Brussels