A museum in Massachusetts dedicated to beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss caved to a threatened boycott on Friday, announcing it will remove a mural from the premises that left-wing activists claim depicted “jarring racial stereotypes.”
According to Fox News, the mural in question featured images from Seuss’s first children’s book, “And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street.” The illustrations prompted three authors to decline an invitation to speak at the museum during the Children’s Literature Festival.
The authors, identified as Mo Willems, Mike Curato, and Lisa Yee signed a petition and posted it on social media, detailing their objections to the artwork.
“We recently learned that a key component of this institution honoring Dr. Seuss features a mural depicting a scene from his first book, ‘And to Think That I Saw It on Mullberry Street,’ and within the selected art is a jarring racial stereotype of a Chinese man, who is depicted with chopsticks, a pointed hat and slanted slit eyes,” reads the petition. “We find this caricature of ‘the Chinaman’ deeply hurtful, and we have concerns about children’s exposure to it.”
The museum confirmed the images will be removed, but will be replaced with illustrations from other works by the beloved author.
“This is what Dr. Seuss would have wanted us to do. His later books, like ‘The Sneetches’ and ‘Horton Hears a Who,’ showed a great respect for fairness and diversity,” said a statement from the museum.
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