Civil rights attorney Leo Terrell and Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum discussed the concept of cancel culture during a Tuesday afternoon segment on “The Story.”
In a move that many have panned as simply the latest in an ongoing cancel culture trend, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the business that promotes the legacy of the legendary children’s author, announced Tuesday that they would no longer publish six books because of “racist and insensitive imagery.”
Terrell, a former public school teacher, told MacCallum that he “read those books as a student” and that the images “reflect the time in which the books were written.”
“I am not offended by those pictures because it talks about the evolution of this country and how we are now,” he said.
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“You cannot ignore history, you cannot eliminate history,” Terrell continued. “They use this argument of racist as a gimmick, a talking point to basically cancel people out. I think it’s wrong as a teacher … We cannot eliminate our history. Some 0f our history is bad but the majority is great. Both sides need to be taught.”
MacCallum acknowledged that many of the images are not how “we depict people today,” but pointed out that most of the objectionable images were drawn in a different era.
“Again, as a teacher when I taught, you talk about the context of how these books were written,” Terrell responded. “Cancel culture is going to backfire, because it denies history.” (RELATED: Dr. Seuss Book Ban Sparks eBay Bidding Wars)
“No person in American history is perfect, from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln,” he continued. “We don’t cancel people. We need to embellish the good parts, criticize the bat parts, but grow and learn from it. I think that’s something that we need to do and speak out about it.”