eBay remove ‘hurtful and wrong.’ Dr. Seuss books listings

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News is circulating that eBay are removing listings for ‘hurtful and wrong.’ Dr. Seuss books, some of which were selling for thousands after publication was ceased by Dr. Seuss Enterprises’.

The following titles are being pulled from the marketplace due to their racist depictions of non-white characters:

  • And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
  • If I Ran the Zoo
  • McElligot’s Pool
  • On Beyond Zebra!
  • Scrambled Eggs Super!
  • The Cat’s Quizzer

It seems that although the books are not being ‘banned’ or ‘canceled’ removing them from the marketplace is the right thing to do and helps the Dr.Suess company maintain their commitment in ensuring Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families.

If you have any of these books and decide to list them you might end up having your listings taken down. Despite eBay trailing through the marketplace to remove the books, many listings are still up, and by the looks of it, daring sellers are still attempting to cash in on and list the books even after the mass removal was announced.

Removing discrimination on marketplaces

As can be expected in modern times, the removal of racist, discriminatory or hurtful products from online marketplaces is becoming more common. We are advocating for a safer more connected world where hate is not tolerated. Big companies such as in this case, eBay and the Dr. Seuss Enterprises can have an impact in making that change happen and are an important part of the process.

That being said, the selling of products that are seen as discriminatory brings up much controversy. For instance, these books being ceased from publication is one thing but when you can still find ‘Golliwog’ books and toys, a character that has been publically stated as racist it begs the question as to whether eBay will be able to maintain the takedown. It’s likely they would if a listing was reported, but still leaves room for listings to seep through when not.

7 Responses

  1. Just waiting for all the disney stuff to go too…. let’s face it if we are going to actively look for and seek out what most had never thought of before… Disney is a great place to start. Bullying, racist, stereo types, animal and child cruelty….
    Personally i prefere to explain why some practices are nolonger acceptable rather than simply go through history erasing what we now find distasteful. Censorship never really works in the long run.

  2. Interesting that publishers, eBay, Amazon and social media are now our moral guardians. We can sleep safely knowing we are safe in eBay’s moral help and guidance through this evil world. I hope eBay have a heaven for me when I die for living by their (ever-changing) rules for the last 22 years. Much I love eBay (as a generally good replacement for my old high street shops) I fear the hell they offer in the after-life for following their “moral” guidance now is going to be far worse than the one they offer now

  3. I don’t think this should be happening, as I don’t think any company should be deciding what is racist or offensive and then telling me what I can view or purchase. FYI. You can still purchase Mein Komph. We cannot erase history, but learn from it. Our past is full of many things that are offensive, racist and hateful, that was not considered this way when stated or published at the time and this is our opportunity to pause and point out how this is offensive and reflect on where our society was at the time and how we have evolved since then and now recognize the shortcomings of our past , which, in my opinion allows us to move more confidentially into the future, free of this type of censorship, which, in itself creates the type of hate and intolerance we are trying to eliminate.

  4. Haha

    what an amusing stance. Everyone is banging on about racism and religion and insultin names etc but i am beginning to think it is just a few trying to make waves.

    We sold a dog tag today with an Irish clover on it and the buyer was an irish lady with an irish name.

    Now she asked for it to be engraved with the dogs name along with the tel number and postcode.

    The dogs name is PADDY

    now if i had camlled it that or any irish person that i would be accused of being racist. Just like every day comedians are on tv saying things that in any other walk of life would be screamed at.
    Try watching Romesh on a night mimicking his mothers voice . And as for family Guy on about 8 times per week but no one shuts down ITV2.

    Alkl the tiny things that become big issues turn the real issues of racism and other things into tiny insignificant things. Imagine saying to a child of colour “you cheeky monkey” yet tellme you never say it to a child of any colour.
    The whole thing is going totally out of control and missing the point of the big issues that definitely need sorting out. There is no place in the world for real racism.Just had my grandson tell me he cant sing baa baa black sheep anymore at school.

    But no one bans the use of black crayons and guess what no skin colour is actually that colour. So its about time racism was punished excep[tionally hard and trivial stupidy just educated against.
    Oh and before anyone starts moaning my grandson is a muslim.

  5. At high school, our teachers were told to refer to the “chalk board” instead of the blackboard. Likewise, the phrase “black bin bag” was banned. That was 25 years ago – in a school, by the way, where 99% of the students were white. It’s always been a thing – the self-appointed anointed ones, clipboard carrying paperclip-counters trying to ruin everything for everyone else because they could never cut in the real world.

  6. This is is hypocrite. Although the intent may be good, they are pinpointing at the wrong items. A few years ago I reported a seller to Ebay.nl who sold extreme right wing and racist cd’s. The first e-mails they replied they could not do anything against it, because ‘then they also would have to remove ‘left wing’ cd’s.’ After several emails, they said action had been taken, they could not tell what action specific. The seller had already sold many racist items without problems, which clearly had nazi symbols, and racial messages. I did a short research and discovered that there were more sellers, who sold racist cd’s without any problems.

  7. to be safe we now only employ genderless ,mixed race LGBT people with a genetic or medical condition.

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