Commentary: Flashback: Barack Obama Said Dr. Seuss Books Have a 'Message of Inclusivity' Written Into Them

No one is safe from the cancel culture of the left, as evidenced by the latest victim — beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss. However, a short trip into the past reveals that the party who now accuses Dr. Seuss of racism had a very different message just a few years ago.

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama was the leader of the Democratic Party. At that time, the seminal figure of the left was very much a fan of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s work.

“Pretty much all the stuff you need to know is in Dr. Seuss,” he said to a smiling group of White House interns.

Obama didn’t stop with that broad statement. He went into specific details about how Dr. Seuss‘ work teaches us important values and life lessons.

“It’s like the Star-Belly Sneetches, you know?” he said in reference to Dr. Seuss’ “The Sneetches and Other Stories.”

“We’re all the same, so why would we treat somebody differently just because they don’t have a star on their belly?”

He added that “Horton Hatches the Egg” teaches the value of responsibility because Horton cares for the egg while the mother, Mayzie, goes off to Palm Beach to avoid her responsibility.

“All I’m saying is that as you get older, what you will find is that the homespun, basic virtues that your mom or your dad or folks you care about or admire taught you about hard work, being responsible, being kind, giving something back, being useful, working as a team — turns out, it’s all true.”

Fox News reported that Obama made similar comments in a 2018 interview with author Dave Eggers. He and former first lady Michelle Obama routinely read Dr. Seuss books to children on the author’s March 2 birthday, known nationally as “Read Across America Day.”

However, this March 2, the tone around Dr. Seuss is much less enthusiastic. That is because the left has decided to “cancel” him over the supposed insensitivity in his books.

The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that six Dr. Seuss books would no longer be published by Dr. Seuss Enterprises. They include popular titles “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo.”

“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises told The AP.

“Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families.”

The explanation of the so-called “racist imagery” in these books is even more outlandish.

“In ‘And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,’ an Asian person is portrayed wearing a conical hat, holding chopsticks, and eating from a bowl,” the outlet reported.

“‘If I Ran the Zoo’ includes a drawing of two bare-footed African men wearing what appear to be grass skirts with their hair tied above their heads.”

The cancel crusade does not even stop with these particular books.

The Washington Post published a so-called “perspective” article that effectively claimed Dr. Seuss was a lifelong racist whose anti-minority views “leached into his children’s books like toxic mold in the basement — easy but dangerous to ignore.”

That seems a bit dramatic.

President Joe Biden went so far as to erase any mention of Dr. Seuss in his proclamation on Tuesday’s National “Read Across America Day.” This was a stark contrast from both Obama and Trump, who praised Dr. Seuss on the same day during their presidencies, Fox News reported.

To the left, though, the whitewashing does not stop with the specific act of “racism” that a person committed. Instead, we must admit that everything they ever did or accomplished should be ignored on the basis of one offense, no matter how small.

By that same logic, Obama should be lambasted for publicly supporting a “racist” multiple times during his career. If Dr. Seuss has always been a vicious bigot, then he was just as terrible when Obama praised him as he is now.

The truth, of course, is that Obama was correct in his original praise of Dr. Seuss’ work. Yet to stand by those comments would be to defy the woke party that he himself helped to create.

Children need to read works like those of Dr. Seuss that teach truly important values. The left mocks conservatives for getting too worked up about the cancelation of figures like Dr. Seuss, but the truth is that it has real consequences.

The aforementioned article from The Post argued that children would benefit from reading books like Ibram X. Kendi’s “Antiracist Baby.” That could not be more wrong.

The last thing America needs is parents who force the lies of critical race theory and systemic racism onto their 5-year-olds.

The reason conservatives feel the need to fight back against cancel culture is not because we are obsessed with people like Dr. Seuss. Rather, it is because we wish to protect the values and truths that he stood for.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.