[hildea]

I think the problem with that book is that the only picture of a Chinese person is of someone in stereotypical clothing and stereotypical accessories. The problem isn't so much the image on its own, but its context.

There's a white man who's interesting to look at because he has an absurdly long beard, and a white man who's interesting to look at because he is a magician, and a Chinese man who's interesting to look at because he is Chinese.

If the book had also had Chinese people who were interesting to look at because they were driving airplanes, or were firefighters, or were eating an absurdly large cake, and if it also had some white people who were interesting to look at because of their ethnicity (a Scot in kilt playing a bagpipe, a Norwegian in bunad eating lutefisk), or even just a few Chinese people among the extras in the background, wearing top hats and playing instruments, I think the book would have been fine. As it is, it tells children that being Chinese or of Chinese descent is weird and exotic, and being European or of European descent is normal. That's not a great message to give to any child, no matter their ancestry.

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

I find all those images inoffensive, and wonder out loud how they've created this storm in a bloody tea cup

Oh, I agree that it's a storm in at tea cup. Publishers and rights owners decide to stop reprinting books all the time, for all kinds of reasons. This has become an issue because some people with a persecution complex have decided that a normal business decision is some kind of attack on their freedom It could also be a shrewd (if somewhat cynical) decision from Seuss' heirs: Some old books don't sell well, so let's tell people we're withdrawing them for ideological reasons, because then the people who disagree will buy out our remaining stock as a political gesture.

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Even if my last link is exaggerated, the earlier campaign against freedom to read gay-friendly children's books failed to understand the role of literature, as does this one.

What do you see as the role of literature?
I see its role as a mirror -- showing us what we can be -- and as a window -- giving us insight into other people and other worlds (and as a source of joy and entertainment, of course). Both the mirror and the window fails us if it distorts some types of people into exotic or weird cliches.

(Your last link seem to promote some kind of transphobic conspiracy theory, and doesn't seem relevant to this discussion.)

Heh, I'm writing quite a lot about this tea cup I'll end with this Goldberg quote:

"Well, when I was nine years old Star Trek came on," Goldberg says. "I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, 'Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!' I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be."