Why Do Dr. Seuss Use Racism In Political Cartoons

While it is true that Dr. Seuss used racism in his political cartoons, which were highly offensive, it does not necessarily follow that those were his personal views and he should be targeted as a racist, tarnishing his image as a household name. During WWII, the views of many Americans were bigoted, as the civil rights movement had not yet started; the Japanese were considered traitors to Americans, the African Americans were segregated from the rest of society and the Jews were labeled as “greedy”, “dishonest” and “pushy” (Jaher). Elmo Burns Roper Jr. was a famous pollster who was known for his work in opinion polling who discover that 58 percent of people in 1945 agreed that Jews had “too much power in the United States” and that 61 percent …show more content…
Seuss’ political cartoons as rude and vulgar because of the way he has represented certain races of people. However, his cartoons were meant to be taken light-heartedly rather than over analytically. Jim Edwards states that Dr. Seuss represented African Americans “savages” due to a cartoon he drew for a bug repellant called Flit. In this advertisement, a black individual is dressed in nothing but a grass skirt on an island that is filled with flies, to which a more sophisticated white man arrives asking to join his island after a shipwreck, to which the black man replies, “Not unless you swim back after some Flit, mistah. The flies on this island are fearful.” Edwards exclaims this advertisement to be racist and immoral, though the black man is protecting the white man from dangerous flies, making him caring rather than a “savage”. Also, this ad along with many other Flit ads was based on a product for a company that was selling a certain product that they wanted Dr. Seuss to draw for advertising purposes. These Flit cartoons were business related and portrayed the views of the company not Dr. Seuss as he was only the employee doing as told. However, years after this cartoon was made, Dr. Seuss produced another cartoon based off of black people, which was anti-racist and rather moving. The cartoon was made in 1942 for the PM, which said “Listen maestro… if you want to get real harmony, use the black keys as well as the white!”. This cartoon underlines …show more content…
Seuss has received around his career, as a propagandist, is undeserved. Many author-artists’, such as Dr. Seuss and similarly as Herblock and Walt Disney, joined the propaganda realm during the 1940s in order to make a war effort. Dennis Nyback, a New York independent film archivist and historian, exclaims, “There’s this view of Dr. Seuss that’s pretty much two-dimensional” which is extremely accurate, as he is regarded as a content and admirable individual (McMurtie). Society needs to broaden their image of Dr. Seuss, as he is a complex human being, just like the rest of the world. He has his flaws and his own opinions that were appropriate to the period he was raised in. Nyback deadpans for why people are not familiar with Dr. Seuss’s wartime works: “I don’t think his estate particularly wants to promote it” (McMurtie). However, in order for people to accept Dr. Seuss for his political works, his name-holders need to make them more public in order to remove the stigma they receive today. Also, schools should present WWII propaganda to students in a history or sociology setting in which the ideas in propaganda are discussed; hence people do not confuse propaganda tactics with personal views. Another major change that should be made is, to show the public that Dr. Seuss was not the only one to create political cartoons, as Herblock and Walt Disney created them too. Herblock’s editorial cartoons were beaten down by Richard M. Nixon, who was