Thanks to Liz Phipps Soiero, the whole world knows that Dr. Suess books are insufferably racist. That's why Soiero, a Cambridge, Massachusetts school librarian, rejected Melania's kind book bundle of Seuss' classic treatise on white supremacy, "Oh, The Places You'll Go!"
The problem, according to Soiero, is that Seuss' characters are "minstrelsy," and "steeped in racist propoganda." Minstrelsy? Yes indeed, that's because they often wear bow ties, just like those famous racists, Porky the Pig and Boo Boo the Bear. Mark Steyn actually bothered to do the research, looking up Soeiro's source text, an article in the Journal of Social Justice Librarians. Here he is, on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
The piece argues that the Cat in the Hat’s bow tie is meant to be an evocation of 19th-century racist minstrel shows. Now just off the top of my head, cartoon characters who wear bow ties — Porky Pig, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Huckleberry Hound. Yogi Bear doesn’t wear a bow, he wears a tie like me, but his boy sidekick Boo Boo the Bear wears a bow tie.
Ambrosia, I think the name is, in ‘My Little Pony’ wears a bow tie. I’m not one of the many men in the western world who are obsessed with ‘My Little Pony’ and have ‘My Little Pony’ parties, but I happen to know this one character in ‘My Little Pony’ wears a bow tie. Cartoon characters wear bow ties. That has nothing to do the minstrel shows. We are making ourselves a society too stupid to survive...
We are making ourselves a society too stupid to survive, says the apocalyptic Steyn and he has an evident point. My Little Pony, how minstrelsy. But mind-bending dimwittedness aside, let's not forget hypocrisy. You see, Soiero likes dressing up as a Dr. Seuss character. This is her in 2015.
Who knows, maybe the enlightened librarian has repented of her racist, minstrelsy, Seussian past. On the other hand, perhaps she simply hates America's attractive and glamorous First Lady and her husband. Imagine Soeiro's reaction if Michelle Obama had sent the book bundle.
Go ahead, try that hat on for size.
Your Old Friend,
LSP
