“But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches would brag, ‘We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.’ With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort, ‘We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!’” ~Dr. Seuss
UCSD canceled their annual birthday party for Dr. Seuss (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) because of racial incidents on campus. They started with a black history month “Compton Cookout” where the planners invited attendees to “dress ghetto” and promised malt liquor, watermelon, and fried chicken. After that, there was a noose left in the library (honest mistake, just someone was just fiddling with string). And then someone put a KKK-style hood (pillowcase) over the statue of Dr. Seuss outside of the Geisel library.
I’d just been there! Right there! Taking pictures of that very statue! A racist could have been watching me and I would never have known it! We should have some way to identify racists. Maybe stars on their shirts? (It’s OK to hate the haters, right?)
Dr. Seuss would be so pissed about that hood on his statue if he were alive. Maybe no one read The Sneetches to them when they were kids. Or maybe they just thought it was about Gucci vs. Louis Vuitton. Probably.
messiestobjects said,
March 3, 2010 at 3:34 pm
I wish they posted that whole cartoon, because now it seems like the lesson is to conform and make yourself just like the elitist sneetch beetches.
Benito Juarez said,
March 3, 2010 at 10:24 pm
June 4, 1977: An original poem composed for the 99th Commencement of Lake Forest College by Theodor Seuss Geisel (a.k.a Dr. Seuss). Eugene Hotchkiss III was president of Lake Forest College from 1970 to 1993.
On Dr. Seuss’s piece of paper were these words:
My Uncle Terwilliger on
the Art of Eating Popovers
My uncle ordered popovers
from the restaurant’s bill of fare.
And, when they were served,
he regarded them
with a penetrating stare…
Then he spoke great Words of Wisdom
as he sat there on that chair:
“To eat these things,”
said my uncle,
“you must exercise great care.
You may swallow down what’s solid…
BUT…
you must spit out the air!”
And…
as you partake of the world’s bill of fare,
that’s darned good advice to follow.
Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.
And be careful what you swallow.
—Dr. Seuss
http://www.lakeforest.edu/alumni/spectrum/spring04/seuss.asp
julieluongo said,
March 3, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Cool. I never heard that story about him.