# And to Think I can't See it on Mulberry Street -- Six Seuss Books retired for racism **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [March 2, 2021, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-to-think-i-cant-see-it-on-mulberry-street-six-seuss-books-retired-for-racism/934113 "2021-03-02T14:09:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 141
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2021, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-to-think-i-cant-see-it-on-mulberry-street-six-seuss-books-retired-for-racism/934113/141 "2021-03-04T02:42:21Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > I think there was more to it than that. The phrase had its roots in the fear Southern whites had of miscegenation and the possibility that their family trees may not be all that white. It was a crude way of referring to someone who may have had at least one ancestor who was the result of an illicit union between a black slave and a white master. I started a thread about this a few years back. > [@Anyone familiar with this racist term?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-familiar-with-this-racist-term/790936/): > > UK MP is [suspended](http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/the-real-nr-in-the-woodpile-conservative-tory-british-mp-caught-using-n-word-while-defending-brexit/) for using the term “nigger in the woodpile.” I live in rural South Carolina and have never once heard the phrase. It is notable enough to [have a Wikipedia entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger_in_the_woodpile), though, and I see from the wiki that the phrase has escaped from a British Lord. before this instance and even [shows up in one of Dr. Seuss’s less commendable artworks](http://www.complex.com/style/2015/05/super-racist-dr-seuss-drawing-heading-to-auction). So does this phrase still have life in some corners of the US and the UK? --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-to-think-i-cant-see-it-on-mulberry-street-six-seuss-books-retired-for-racism/934113)._