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Jonathan Zimmerman, Opinion contributor Published 1:09 p.m. ET March 11, 2021 | Updated 1:38 p.m. ET March 11, 2021

Dr. Seuss can open the discussion of racism with your children.

In 1951, childrens author Jerrold Beim published a short book called "The Swimming Hole." It described two groups of boys one white, one Black who frolic together in the water. Refusing to swim with the Black boys, a white kid receives a nasty sunburn and eventually a stern rebuke from his peers. Suppose we would refuse to play with you now because your face is red? they ask him.

"The Swimming Hole" sparked outrage across the segregated South, where it was frequently banned from schools. So was "The Rabbits Wedding" which described the nuptials of a Black hare and a white one and even a new edition of "The Three Little Pigs." The revised edition portrayed a Black pig as better than a white one, which offended the delicate sensibilities of white people below the Mason-Dixon line.

Ive been thinking about this history during the recent debate over Dr. Seuss, born Theodor Seuss Geisel. Recently, the company that oversees his estate announced that it would end publication and licensing of six books by Dr. Seuss that portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.

But its hurtful to remove them from the public square, which is the goal of censors everywhere.They think we can't recognize the "problematic" aspects of Dr. Seuss, so we must be shielded from him. And they're wrong about that.

Books by Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, including "On Beyond Zebra!" and "And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street," on March 2, 2021, in Chicago.(Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Yes, his booksinclude blatantly racist caricatures and stereotypes: an Asian person holding chopsticks, barefooted Africans wearing grass skirts, and so on. Before he died in 1991, Seussactually altered some of the drawings to make them less objectionable. In the Asian illustration, for example, he removed the figures pigtail, changed its yellow skin tone, and altered the accompanying text to read Chinese instead of Chinaman.

But the illustration still offends, which raises an obvious question: why didnt the publishers alter it again or simply remove it? We dont know, but we can guess the answer: to satiate Dr. Seuss critics. Censors dont aim to strike a word here, and a picture there; they want to obliterate a work of literature altogether, so nobody sees it.

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And that never works in America, where authors often become more popular when someone tries to shut them down. A few days after the announcement that six Dr. Seuss books would no longer be published, four of themshot into Amazons list oftop 20 best-sellers.All told, 13 of the 20 books were by you guessed it Dr. Seuss.

The moral of the story?Americans dont want to be told what they can and cant read. And, most of all, they want to make up their own minds instead of letting someone else do it for them.

Thats the deepest fear of the censor, in all times and places: that readers will get the wrong idea. In the segregated South, whites worried that kids who encountered The Swimming Hole would decide that racism was wrong. And now theres a fear that children who read Dr. Seuss will become racists themselves.

But children and their parents are wiser than that. Writing last year, African-American blogger Danielle Slaughter argued that Dr. Seuss her young son's favorite authorwould help her teach him about racism. Dr. Seuss wrote books that indicted discrimination (most famously, "The Sneetches")but he also engaged in his own forms of it, Slaughter noted. It was complicated. And so is America, especially when it comes to race.

Choosing to throw away his books doesnt make you any less racist, Slaughter wrote, explaining why she continued to read Dr. Seuss with her family. It does, however, make you the type of person who insists on talking about racism in hushed tones.

The real question is whether we trust each other enough to have that talk out loud. Last week, the childrens author Deborah Hautzig acknowledged the racismin Dr. Seuss books but insisted that theyshould remain available to everyone. Hautzig recalled that her first novel, "Hey, Dollface," was banned in schools and libraries across the South when it appeared in 1978 because of its frank exploration of teenage female sexuality.

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Children are smart, Hautzig wrote. They have every right to see, examine, challenge, and reject racism for themselves, and to have it pointed out and vehemently rejected by the adults who read to them.

No matter its source or its goal, censorship always betrays a lack of faith in human beings. We don't have to tuck Dr. Seuss away in a corner. We can talk about him, the good and the bad: his light spirit of whimsy, and the dark racism that marred it. We are better than the censors think we are.

Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the co-author (with Signe Wilkinson) of Free Speech, and Why You Should Give a Damn, which will be published next month by City of Light Press.

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Why we shouldnt censor Dr. Seuss: Parents and their children are wise - USA TODAY

Film distributors in Russia have attempted to censor the gay romanceSupernova by removing scenes of two men having sex, and scrubbing the film of references to the two leads being a gay couple.

The Moscow Times reports that DTFa series of Russian blogsdocumented that at least one scene where the characters try to have sex after a dramatic dialogue has disappeared from the story. The paper further reports that DTF commentators said the gay relationship is still obvious, even with the edits.

Related:WATCH: Supernova star Stanley Tucci weighs in on straight actors playing gay (and he should know)

Apparently, the distributor for the film in Russia, World Pictures, imposed the edits without the input of the filmmakers. They feared that Russias harsh anti-gay propaganda laws could open up the company to government oppression. Further reports state that World Pictures had also instructed critics not to make any reference to the leadsplayed by Colin Firth and Stanley Tuccias couple, or to use the word gay in reviews.

In a delightful twist, however, attempts to censor the film have also backfired. Critics commented that removing overt references to the couples sexuality actually makes the film even more touching.

Now the Russian version of Supernova even more clearly shows the huge social gap between us and the conventional West, critic Yefim Gugnin wrote in his review. The distributors, unwittingly, made this love story even more poignant, even thinner, removed it into a subtext, which, as you know, is stronger than any open text.

In recent years, Russia has launched a harshand at times, violentcampaign against what the nation deems homosexual propaganda. LGBTQ activists in the country and surrounding nations are subject to intimidation, torture and death. As such, a number of western films dealing with homosexuality have also undergone heavy censorship, includingRocketman, Onward and Avengers: Endgame.

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Russian censors tried to cut the gay out of Supernova. It didnt work. - Queerty

The International Center for Defense and Security (ICDS, Estonia), in close cooperation with the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Estonia, will hold today an online discussion entitled "How does the occupation of Crimea affect Ukraine's national resilience?"

The live broadcast of the event can be watched on the Facebook pages of the Resilient Ukraine program and Ukrinform, which is a media partner of the event.

The issues to discuss include: "The Crimean platform: what role should Estonia play during the summit?"; "Passportization in Crimea: how does the process of obtaining Russian citizenship by Crimeans threaten Ukraine?"; "Drafting to the occupying army: why does illegal conscription to the Russian Armed Forces give rise to growing disturbance?"; "Impacts on resilience: how do Crimean-origin information operations by Russia threaten southern and eastern Ukraine?"

Participants in the event are Mariana Betsa, Ambassador of Ukraine to Estonia; Ihor Yaremenko, Deputy Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine; Volodymyr Prytula, Head of the Crimean Desk, RFE/RL (Krym.Realii); Ibrahim Suleimanov, Head of Kherson city Majlis, Development Director of the Kuresh Crimean Tatar Cultural Center; Marko Mihkelson, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament; Gert Antsu, Director of the Estonian Center of Eastern Partnership, former Ambassador of Estonia to Ukraine (2016-2019); Evhen Tsybulenko, Law professor at the Tallinn University of Technology. Dmitri Teperik, Chief Executive of the International Center for Defense and Security (Estonia) and Resilient Ukraine program director, will moderate the discussion.

The Resilient Ukraine program has been implemented by the International Center for Defense and Security (ICDS) since 2016 with the support of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In addition to Ukrinform, a media partner of the event is RFE/RL's Krym.Realii (Crimea.Realities) project.

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Discussion 'How does the occupation of Crimea affect Ukraine?' LIVE BROADCAST - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky plans to visit Vilnius this year to participate in the Ukraine Reform Conference.

Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkvasaid this in an interview with Baltic News Service(BNS) Lithuania, according to the website of the head of the Ukrainian state.

We hope that the conference will take place this year. The Ukrainian government and the President's Office are already working on this. The head of state will be glad to come to Lithuania to discuss the progress of Ukrainian reforms and support for Ukraine from European partners, he said.

According to Zhovkva, over the past year and a half, Ukraine has shown significant progress in reforms; in particular, recently President of the European Council Charles Michel noted the efforts of the Ukrainian president in judicial and banking reforms, as well as in the agricultural sector. We look forward to a fair assessment of the process. And we count on support for Ukraine to continue this path of reforms, he stressed.

The deputy head of the President's Office also focused on the process of Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration. He recalled that the Ukrainian state received a NATO Enhanced Opportunities Partner status and raises the issue of providing a NATO Membership Action Plan. We understand that we have to do our homework, including reforms in the security and military sectors of Ukraine. We are working on this, Zhovkva said.

Work is also underway to deepen Ukraine's integration with the European Union. Much depends on Ukraine, but not everything. We will do our "homework", but we really count on the support of Brussels and EU Member States. And here, by the way, the role of Lithuania is very important, because I hope that Lithuania unanimously supports Ukraine's membership in the EU and NATO, Zhovkva noted.

He also said that the Republic of Lithuania is not just a strategic partner of Ukraine, but also a strategic friend and brother, and both countries have great potential for cooperation.

ish

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Zelensky plans to attend Ukraine Reform Conference in Vilnius this year President's Office - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

The European Commission is warming to the idea of offering more ambitious integration plan to the three Eastern partners of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, an EU official has said.

Calls for a more ambitious policy in the East with the three countries, all of which have signed association agreements with the EU and harbour ambitions to one day join the bloc, have been long echoed by the European Parliament.

So far, the EU executive has been cautious to endorse the plan for the group, often referred to as the Trio, wary that more perks for the associated countries may irritate the three other Eastern partners Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus.

However, the question of deepening ties with the Trio is on the agenda more than ever right now, especially with the current situation in the partnership, according to Katarna Mathernov, Deputy Director-General of the European Commissions department for neighbourhood and enlargement.

The European Peoples Party (EPP) has presented a proposal to enable faster and deeper sectoral integration with the EU for the three countries within the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova that are looking for a more ambitious integration with the bloc.

It appears EU countries are increasingly interested in deepening ties with the three Eastern allies, spurred on by a political crisis in Georgia, continuing anti-government protests in Belarus, the fallout from the Armenian-Azerbaijani war and a frosty relationship between Moscow and Brussels.

The European Commission increasingly hears comments about a more tailor-made approach for the Trio, and at a recent meeting of EU countries Germany raised the issue of what more should be done for the three countries, Mathernov told a webinar on Thursday (4 March).

Meanwhile, the blocs diplomatic branch, the European External Action Service (EEAS), remains watchful of the possible effects of further differentiation for Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

We dont want to send a message, for example, that the very strong judicial reform efforts in Armenia are not recognised by the EU as well, said head of EEAS division for Eastern partnership Richard Tibbels said.

I have to say, I dont think we should do this in a way which says there is one set of three countries and another set of three countries, I think we have to be careful that we look at this perhaps in a more functional and sectoral way, he added.

Western Balkans and Associated Trio: Whos ahead?

Meanwhile, official EU accession candidates and the three associated partners are not far apart in terms of Western integration, a recently published study revealed.

A comparison of the Commissions yearly reports on EU hopefuls in the Western Balkans, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia and the progress of agreement implementation with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, suggested the Balkans are a bit ahead on the political-legal front, whereas the Eastern Europeans have advanced much more in terms of trade and economic cooperation.

The authors argue for an overhaul of the EUs enlargement and neighbourhood policies, partly to strengthen incentives to drive forward political and economic reforms in the would-be accession countries.

The Commission could use similar quantified ratings and tie EU aid to performance on these metrics, the authors said.

We can go further and, in terms of financial assistance, we can have the concept of progressive accession to the structural funds that would indeed be delivering on the more for more slogan, but every step towards fuller financial assistance would be linked quantified ratings of the kinds that weve developed in the paper, said Michael Emerson, senior research fellow at Brussels-based CEPS think tank.

Mathernov agreed that the EU has loaded the the association agreements and the DCFTAs with quite a lot of expectations and I would say regulatory burden on the shoulders of our partners, in fact, going beyond what happens in the pre-accession phase.

The Commission is now looking areas where the cooperation can be deepened, with sight set on the digital market as the regulatory setup in this area is developing dynamically both in the EU and partner countries.

Now, I dont think that we should we can or should oversell this, we have to go step by step, the official added.

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EU warms to more integration with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine - EURACTIV