Dr. Seuss on Conflict Resolution

In the popular satire, the “Star-bellied Sneeches”, Dr. Seuss illustrates his opposition to social and cultural discrimination – more specifically his disdain for anti-Semitism - by creating two cohabitating races of “Sneeches”; one with stars on their bellies and one without. Those with star bellies discriminate against those without until one day when an entrepreneur named Sylvester McMonkey McBean offers the starless Sneeches the chance to have stars tattooed on their bellies for a price. All the Sneeches formerly without star-bellies get tattooed to the disapproval of the original Star-bellied Sneeches who proceed to have their stars removed by McBean for a higher price than it cost the other Sneeches to get the original star tattoo, in the belief they can maintain their special status by being different to the newly star-bellied Sneeches. This process of starring and de-starring continues and escalates:

“until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew

whether this one was that one... or that one was this one

or which one was what one... or what one was who.”

All Sneeches are broke and their identity is confused but the futility of their transformations is not lost on them as they learn that no Sneech is better for having stars or not having stars and all live happily ever after. The end.

In the real world, Sneeches are people experiencing ethnic discrimination and McBean is anything ranging from economic hardship, natural disaster, political under-representation misrepresentation, foreign intervention/invasion or poverty. What makes a happy ending so easy (apart from the fact that the “Star-bellied Sneeches” is fictional) is that McBean left and the two conflicting parties had the clarity of mind and ability to see the futility of their hatred campaign and the need to cooperate to have a future. Very rarely in modern ethnic conflict does McBean just up and leave, in fact he often continues to hang around and exponentially fuel the ethnic division and work to deepen pre-existing divisions. The global audience, as witnesses to ethnic violence, need to develop methods of preventing McBean from entering a community of Sneeches and when it is too late for this, they must focus on finding a way to make him leave.