Popular Culture Review Vol. 10, No. 2, August 1999 | Page 142

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Popular Culture Review
We know who is who! Now there isn’t a doubt.
The best kind of Sneetches are Sneetches
without! (Dr. Seuss 1989, p.l8).

Taking advantage of the situation, the happy-go-lucky rouge, McBean,
after cleverly bargaining and taking all the unsuspecting Sneetches’ money, con
cluded that the simple-minded, beak-nosed populace that “lived on the beaches,”
would never learn, or be willing to tolerate each other, because of their vanity and
self-hatred. And as the sly Slyvester McMonkey McBean drove away in his splen
did and sensational car and Star-On, Star-Off Machines, he amusingly declared to
himself, “No. You can’t teach a Sneetch!” (Dr. Seuss 1989, p.22).
However, having lost most of their wealth, and despite words to the con
trary, the indomitable Sneetches finally realized that is really didn’t matter if they
were different. In Dr. Seuss’ (1989, p.24) optimistic words:
.. .McBean was quite wrong. I’m quite happy to say
That the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day.
The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars
And whether they had one, or not, upon thars.
Will such a day in human history and race relations ever come? Dr. Seuss’
zany and irresistible Sneetch characters reveal his careful observation and analysis
of race, especially for the future in America. He takes the position that a signifi
cant difference does exist between us all, although his wacky sensibilities play
fully tell us that we should never be afraid to address or entertain the question of
race in the United States.
And it is this later discussion at the very end of the principal book. The
Sneetches, which is one of the most interesting parts of the eccentric story. The late
Dr. Seuss managed to explore the question of race, and race-related problems,
polarizing racial politics, and intolerance in our heterogeneous society. Nonethe
less, tolerance prevailed in the story in the end.
More importantly. Dr. Seuss challenges our basic assumptions - that we
cannot get past our prejudices, or transcend race - and that discrimination is insig
nificant. Fortunately, as King (1981, p. ix), in The Biology o f Race has pointed
out.
During the past two decades the United States has become offi
cially committed to policies of racial integration in education and