Chicago Tribune

Author: Racism revealed in Dr. Seuss' work, children's literature

Dr. Seuss' colorful characters and rhyming whimsy have made the late writer's books a staple in libraries both personal and public.

But Seuss was not without his shortcomings, says Philip Nel, an English professor at Kansas State University. According to Nel, Seuss' "The Cat in the Hat" is rife with racial caricature and "the influence of blackface minstrelsy lingers."

"People don't see the blackface ancestry of the Cat for the same reason that they don't see the blackface

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