After Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ decision to stop the publishing of six titles — And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer — online marketplace eBayhas decided to also ban the sale of the titles.
Written by Theodor Seuss Geisel some 80 years ago, the titles were some of the most popular kids’ books and best sellers for decades.
Many Dr. Seuss books were often read in class and circulated throughout the North American school system. But the six titles were found to have racist, outdated and insensitive imagery, and as Dr. Seuss Enterprises said in a statement, “These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”
With the ending of these six titles, many flooded to eBay to list their books with copies going for a much as $450 USD, just before they were removed. Other marketplaces like Amazon saw a surge of 5.7 million percent for just one of the books. The decision from eBay to remove “Offensive Materials” has caused a mix reaction: while some have taken to social media to complain about ‘cancel culture’ and deletion of works with historical significance, others agree with the decision comparing it to an outdated, dangerous product.
Philip Nel, a children’s literature scholar at Kansas State University, commented, “In the ’50s, cars did not have seat belts. Now, we recognize that as dangerous – so, cars have seat belts. In the 1950s, lots of books recycled racist caricature. Now, Random House is recognizing this as dangerous.”
Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall‘s Coming 2 America reportedly nabbed the biggest opening weekend of films that premiered on streaming services in the past year.
The study was done by Screen Engine/ASI and although the data analytics firm is not allowed to release the exact numbers of viewers, it did confirm that Coming 2 America outshined the two other films that premiered the same week: The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run on Paramount+ and Raya and the Last Dragon on Disney+, the latter of which cost subscribers an extra $30 USD and also premiered in select cinemas.
In addition to beating Sponge on the Run and Raya and the Last Dragon, Coming 2 America also earned more viewers in comparison to blockbusters like Wonder Woman 1984, which premiered on HBO Max in December 2020, and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video in October 2020.
Coming 2 America premiered on Amazon Prime Video and saw Murphy and Hall reprise their roles as Prince Akeem of Zamunda and his righthand man Semmi. The sequel was directed by Dolemite is My Name filmmaker Craig Brewer and also sees the likes of Jermaine Fowler, Wesley Snipes, KiKi Layne, Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan join the cast.
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