Updated Intro to “Horton Hears a Racist”
Why a 13-year-old review of a Dr. Seuss movie is still relevant today.
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article for The Hollywood Reporter about the importance of selecting the right host for Jeopardy and why Mike Richards was the wrong host (“Why the Host of Jeopardy Matters” https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/kareem-abdul-jabbar-jeopardy-host-matters-1235002645/). One disgruntled reader took the time to email me to complain that TV shows were just something to watch or have on in the background during dinner and had no deeper significance. I understand his frustration at feeling that people are having serious conversations about issues that he’s left out of. It’s marginalizing. Which, ironically, was the point of the article: how some people can feel marginalized when underrepresented.
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I’ve always been aware of the enormous positive impact popular culture has in celebrating through literature, music, film, dance, and visual arts the noblest of human values. But it can also perpetuate harmful ideas, from hateful stereotypes to irrational theories that undermine the foundation of democracy itself. When I was a child watching sitting on the floor watching popular TV shows, I wondered why there were so few Black people in the shows, and why the few that were there often were so insignificant to the story. That certainly made me feel like I was standing on the outside of a mansion, and the TV screen was a window into the house where everyone was living a rich and vibrant life. Sure, there were a few Black faces amongst the revelers—singers, sports figures—but even they were uncomfortable inside.
Many Americans learn their version of history from watching fictional TV shows or movies. From what I saw on TV as a child, there were no Black cowboys in the Old West, but from what I have since read in history books, 1 in 4 cowboys was Black. I learned that when women told you to leave them alone, if you pushed them up against a wall and forced them to kiss you, they would melt into your arms. I learned anyone with a mental health issue was broken and to be ridiculed. I learned that LGBTQ+ were perversions to be either pitied or expelled. And so forth.
Popular culture taught me all that. It teaches even if we’re not paying attention or it’s on in the background during dinner. That’s why it’s so important we examine the components of popular culture so we are aware of what values we’re passing along. Studying it closely is like looking at an x-ray of society’s conscience revealing the hidden maladies that threaten our health. The undiagnosed infection that is untreated and eventually results in gangrene and amputation.
In 2008, after watching the movie adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who (a favorite childhood book of mine), I began writing articles focusing on popular culture and its effect on society. The article begins with an endorsement of Barack Obama for president and then talks about why, a bit tongue in cheek, the movie is relevant to the election. Then I ask how it is possible for the dozens of people responsible for creating the movie, not to have noticed how misogynist it is. It seemed to me that if you can’t recognize how insulting the film is to females, then you probably won’t recognize when you’re creating films that are racist.
