Racism as a major problem in today's world

Racism is one of the most persistent social problems that has been devaluing our society for quite a long time. In the modern world however, many policies have been implemented to ensure that racism has been stopped owing to various humanitarian reasons. For some reason however, racism still exists though in indirect means such as comic book, films and even curriculum books. These sources can easily influence readers or people who often interact with them. In this case for example, the librarian of Massachusetts elementary school believes that the books written by Dr. Seuss are racist and for that reason students should not be allowed to consume the content in the books. For that reason, the librarian rejects donations from Melania Trump while were books authored by Dr. Seuss. The librarian affirms that the author’s books are characterized by racist ideologies and propaganda.

The reaction of the librarian was somewhat unexpected since the first lady claims to be using her affluence as a platform to reach out to as many children as possible. It was only unfortunate that this time she stumbled on a block. Melania claims that since her husband assumed the office of presidency, she has been sending literature books to children across the country and never encountered such a case previously. From the first lady’s point of view, it is unfortunate for the librarian to turn her kind gesture to a divisive act. Melania further states that there were no intended intentions but help the children celebrate the national read a book day. On the day Melania sent a collection of Dr. Seuss books to one school per state. Besides the unexpected rejection of her gift, the first lady strongly affirms that her agenda of standing for every child across the country will continue. She further states that her predecessor also did the same thing and even read stories from Dr. Seuss books to children on the national read a book day. For that reason Melania states that she was just following the footsteps of the former first lady Michelle Obama. Besides Michelle, Melania further states that previous first ladies like Hillary Clinton and Barbara Bush also read and quoted books from Dr. Seuss on national holidays and academic events.

In a letter to the students, while issuing the books, Melania stated that one of Dr. Seuss books’ ” Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” was her favorite as well as her son’s favorite. She further went on to remind all the readers that they were the future leaders of America and that everything they dreamt of would be achieved if their mind is focused. Liz Phipps who is librarian in a Cambridge public school would however write a letter to the state house informing the first lady that her school would not be keeping the copies given to them. The librarian goes on to state that the library only kept book titles that were extremely useful for the student and hence the school had no “ NEED” to retain the books from Dr. Seuss. According to the librarian, her library had over nine thousand volumes for students to choose from and an award winning status to retain.

I believe the librarian’s choice of terming Dr. Seuss books as racist was meant to create a spark since she knew that racism is a sensitive topic that would greatly attract the attention of the country to her. However, the librarian provides her reasons of terming Melania’s gifts as racist. Liz supports her claims by stating that Dr. Seuss books are steeped with caricatures and racist agendas. According to her, the books also contain harmful stereotypes that would possibly affect her students. She quotes books from Dr. Seuss such as “ And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “ If I Ran a Zoo” as racist. Surprisingly, these books were not included in the list of books that Melania was distributing to the children. For that reason the librarian’s action rings a bell to many as to what her agenda was.

The librarian mockingly goes ahead to tell the first lady about her academic qualification in library science. As if that was not enough, the library critiques the first lady’s gesture by stating that she had neglected community based schools thus the books should have been given to the community schools. This is ironical in the sense that the librarian should not have recommended that the books be given to other students, regardless of their school, if she truly found the books to be harmful. To this point it is almost evident that the librarian may have had other intentions or may have shared different ideologies on both academics and politics with the first lady that led her to reject Melania’s gift.

Conclusion

At the end, we find Sierro to be appreciative to the first lady despite having rejected the gifts she had offered them. Surprisingly, the librarian attaches a list of books that she feels would be more helpful to the children. Looking at it from another perspective, it would be rude to turn down a gift from someone, for no good reason, and further suggest the gift you should receive from them. As much as the librarian would be truthful to her course of action, she seems to be aggravated by Trumps leadership since she refers to the president as an ordinary person (you and your husband). All the same, Sierro is firm librarian who wishes for the best for her students at all costs. However, the manner in which she handle the whole issue was somewhat rude towards an agenda was purely aimed at helping the children.