A 2017 tweet from Vice President Kamala Harris has resurfaced mentioning Dr. Seuss by name and quoting him, four years before her own administration would strip his name from Read Across America Day.
Harris was a senator when she sent out the tweet, dated March 2, 2017, in which she wished the famed children’s book author a happy birthday.
“Happy birthday, #DrSeuss! ‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go,’” the California senator wrote at the time.
The birthday of Dr. Seuss — whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel and who died at 87 in 1991 — was chosen by the National Educational Association in 1998 as the date for a new holiday focused on promoting children’s literacy.
This year, President Biden had mentions of Dr. Seuss scrubbed from his presidential proclamation after the late author was accused of including “racial undertones” in some of his classic, whimsical tales for children.
Dr. Seuss’ work has become the center of controversy recently following a study highlighting a lack of diversity among the author’s characters.
“Of the 2,240 (identified) human characters, there are forty-five characters of color representing 2% of the total number of human characters,” according to a 2019 study from the Conscious Kid’s Library and the University of California that examined 50 of Dr. Seuss’ books.
Last week, a Virginia school district ordered its teachers to avoid “connecting Read Across America Day with Dr. Seuss” because of recent research that allegedly “revealed strong racial undertones” in many of the author’s books.
As controversy continued to swirl, the company that oversees the publishing of Dr. Seuss’ works said it would be scrapping six of the books — “If I Ran the Zoo,” “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”
When asked about why Biden’s proclamation declined to include Dr. Seuss on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki referred reporters to the Department of Education.
“I think it is important that children of all backgrounds see themselves in the children’s books that they read, but I would point you to the Department of Education for any more details on the writing of the proclamation,” Psaki said in the White House briefing room.
A Harris spokesperson did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the tweet.
*story by The New York Post
