Seussing Out Difficult Thoughts

By Diane Dokko Kim

“You’re being oversensitive!
It’s really just a joke.
It wasn’t meant to offend.
You’re easily provoked.”

When worldly people curse
And take The Lord’s name in vain
Are Christians being “oversensitive”
At hearing His name profaned?

Who gets to deem
If an expression is offensive or not?
When is it appropriate
To censure someone's thoughts?

In this case, I’d like to think
The answer is patently clear.
Yet I’ve been troubled to observe
A lack of empathy, here…

When (only) six books were pulled
By Seuss’ own estate
What was the reaction?
Relieved or outraged, irate?

These titles had been pulled
For offensive and racist content
But the interwebs protested
Vocal in their malcontent

For me, I don’t appreciate
“Slant eyes” (“If I Ran The Zoo.”)
When Asians have been getting attacked
I should hope it disturbs you, too.

I feel the same offense
For our Imago Dei Black brethren
To see them caricatured and
Stereotyped as barefoot heathens.

I suspect the Seuss-defenders
Have never had to endure
The sting of, “Go back to your country,
Ching-Chong-Chinaman!” type-slurs.

Better to ask BIPOC
What our thoughts & lived-experiences are.
Why indignant social media posts
Disappoint us from afar.

One ought not to dismiss a pain
From which you’ve been exempt.
Mockery insults injury
By dressing wounds with contempt.

Correction is not canceling.
Wrong should be called out for what it is.
Instead, we swallow camels
And strain gnats through a sieve.

Human beings are complicated.
Duplicity & paradox is our lot.
We’re equal parts virtue and wonder,
AND full of selfish rot.

Why not hold conflicting truths
That co-exist in reality?
Like, “God accepts & loves us as we are;
Too much to just leave us be.”

Representation matters to me.
It should matter to everyone, too.
Because kids grow up into adults
Who act on images they view.

Who gets the right to deem
If a book is racist or not?
Shouldn’t we all evaluate
Our assumptions and biased thoughts?

Even the highly regarded
Should evolve in greater understanding.
Better to say, “I was wrong, I’m sorry.”
Than to double-down, grandstanding.

To actualize a more compassionate world
Myopia rendered obsolete
Everyone should be quick to listen,
Slow to speak, and even slower to Tweet.

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

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Diane Dokko Kim is a disability ministry consultant, national speaker, and author of Unbroken Faith: Spiritual Recovery for the Special-Needs Parent (Worthy, 2018). Her work has been featured in Joni and Friends, Christianity Today, LifeWay, Bible Gateway, Parenting Magazine, Moody Radio, Orange, and Jen Hatmaker’s For The Love Podcast. Connect with her at dianedokkokim.com where she blogs on life, “Wrecked, redeemed and repurposed."