Education

Melania Trump Isn’t Happy An Elementary School Rejected Her ‘Racist’ Dr. Seuss Books

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Rob Shimshock Education Reporter
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First Lady Melania Trump slammed an elementary school librarian’s rejection of so-called “racist” Dr. Seuss books gifted by the first lady to the school.

Trump responded to Liz Phipps Soeiro, a school librarian at Cambridgeport Elementary School in Massachusetts, who rejected 10 Dr. Seuss books from the first lady in a Wednesday letter, reported Fox News.

Trump has shown that she wants “to help as many children as she can … in both actions and words since her husband took office, and sending books to children across the country is but one example,” said Stephanie Grisham, the First Lady’s director of communications. “To turn the gesture of sending young students some books into something divisive is unfortunate, but the First Lady remains committed to her efforts on behalf of children everywhere.”

“Dr. Seuss’s illustrations are steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes,” said Phipps Soeiro in her letter to the first lady, calling Seuss “a bit of a cliché, a tired and worn ambassador for children’s literature.” “Open one of his books (‘If I Ran a Zoo or And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street,’ for example), and you’ll see the racist mockery in his art.”

Phipps Soeiro also gave Trump some advice pertaining to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in her letter.

“Why not go out of your way to gift books to underfunded and underprivileged communities that continue to be marginalized and maligned by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos?” asked the school librarian. “Secretary DeVos would do well to scaffold and lift schools instead of punishing them with closures and slashed budgets.”

Phipps Soeiro recommended 10 books to the first lady, including “Mama’s Nightingale: A Story Of Immigration And Separation,” a story touching on refugees and immigration, as well as “Red: A Crayon’s Story,” a tale about a crayon that, while labeled red, colors blue, alluding to transgenderism.

The Massachusetts school librarian had received the books from Trump as a distinction given to the top school in each state. But Cambridge Public Schools distanced itself from Phipps Soeiro Thursday, saying the school librarian’s opinions were hers alone, constituted “a statement of opinion on the meaning of the donation,” and did not represent a formal rejection or acceptance of the books.

The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Cambridgeport Elementary School for comment on what it would actually do with the books, but received none in time for press.

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