The mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts; the home of The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, is asking that the museum leave a mural critics blast as containing Asian stereotypes.
AsAmNews reported last week the museum would remove the Dr. Seuss mural and cancel a book festival after three authors refused to attend in protest.
The mural depicts a caricature of a Chinese man running with chopsticks and a rice bowl, wearing a pointy hat and drawn with exaggerated slanted eyes.
“I told her next week it will be something else,” Mayor Dominic Sarno said of the controversy to MassLive. “You have to put your foot down and draw a line in the sand.”
Sarno called the pending removal of the mural “political correctness at its worse.”
Authors Lisa Yee, Mike Curato and Mo Willems called the mural a ” jarring racial stereotype of a Chinese man.”
Sarno is the latest to come to the defense of Dr. Seuss who has been under attack for his use of stereotypes in his popular children’s books.
Restaurateur and real estate developer Andy Yee and business partner Peter Picknelly offered to buy the mural in an effort to save it.
“That’s my ancestors coming to this country in the 1930s,” Yee said to MassLive. “We did not come wearing Louis Vuitton and Gucci,” Yee said. “Why do you want to change history?”
Picknelly said they want to display the mural in their restaurant or other suitable location.
This has not been the only controversy in recent weeks in involving Dr. Seuss.
Last week, the Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts Action fund and City Councilor Marcus Williams criticized Mayor Sarno for inviting President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to visit the museum.
The mayor made the invitation after a librarian in Cambridge, MA. refused to accept a donation of 10 Dr. Seuss books from the First Lady saying the books with their “racist stereotypes” were not appropriate for children.
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Mayor Backs Dr. Seuss Mural Depicting Asian Stereotypes
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RE:Mayor backs Dr. Seuss mural Depucting Asian Stereotypes:? Andy Yee is wrong. Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act only merchants and students and professionals were allowed to enter. It is in fact a myth that Chinese only did menial jobs. There were professors, diplomats, doctors, teachers, high end restauranteurs, even movie stars like Anna May Wong. That caricature not only minimizes who we were in 1930, by then 4th generation Americans, but also our contributions in building this country and it’s economy. It promotes us as undignified and continues a demeaning stereotype – like little black Sambo. It is wrong to display it and glamorize it.