Tintin in the Hot Seat Again
By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal,08/25/2009
Tintin, the 80 year old Belgian comic book character, is in trouble again—but this time it’s a book banning controversy.
A public outcry of censorship began after the New York Times recently reported that the New York’s Brooklyn Public Library had removed Tin Tin au Congo (Little, Brown 2005) from its general collection and 
relocated it the Hunt Collection, housed in a vaulted room.
Donna Lieberman, head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told the New York Daily News, that library was “taking the easy way out” and wasn’t considering the long term effects of “engaging in censorship.” Lieberman went on to tell WCBS News, "When you take books off the shelves because it's offensive, then you stifle public debate and you stifle freedom.”
The Tintin lockup followed a September 2007 complaint filed by a patron who objected to TinTin creator author/cartoonist George “Hergé” Remi’s depictions of black Africans, stating “culturally we have progressed beyond this depiction”.
The book, set in then-Belgian Congo, follow intrepid boy reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy in their adventures among Africans, who are depicted as simple savages prone to cowardice, superstition, and who use phrases like "White mister! You come save us!"
The 2007 complaint came on the heels of another Tintin controversy in which bookstores were being asked not to carry the book for the same reason. At the time, in Belgium, an African student took legal action to have the book declared racist and removed from bookstores. Its release in Britain earlier that year also prompted the Borders bookstore chain to move the book from the children's section to the adult graphic novels section following customer complaints. The retailer has taken the same action at its 499 U.S. stores.
Mike Meyers of the New York Civil Rights Coalition strongly disagrees with a decision by the library’s material review committee’s to put the book behind lock and key.
“The librarians who banished Tin Tin must answer for what they have done, and also answer this pivotal question, ‘Whose voices count and whose don't in the campaign to remove books that are "offensive" to one group or the other?,’” Meyers wrote in a New York Daily News opinion piece
The controversial Tintin, however, hasn’t stopped directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson from producing and directing three movies based on the comic book. The first is entitled The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, due for release in December, 2011. Spielberg obtained the film rights to Tintin in 1983 after critics compared his Raiders of the Lost Ark to Tintin’s adventures in exotic lands.
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| Submitted by: | Jorge Macieira (jorge.macieira@macieira-law.com) 9/6/2009 3:15:15 PM PT |
| Location: | Lisbon, Portugal |
| Occupation: | Lawyer |
It seems "silly season" isn't over yet. Again this
theme of Tintin and racism as an excuse to censor
books. I dismiss the racist accusation on Tintin for
ridicule. Tintin was, and is, a true role model,
defender of all oppressed, critic to all dictatorships,
morally impolluted, a pilar of the community, a true
scout. The book in question must be read in his
historical context, as our children do, because they
know that those Congolese (as depicted on the comic
book) don't exist and the black race is not that
(because they have black friends at school) and the
values that we, as fathers who love and encourage them
to read Tintin, teach them at home are nor those of
racism or of undermining of any other race nor creed.
The images of books being burnt in 1938 Berlin come to
mind whenever a book is banished or redrawn from
shelves. We all have the right to read whatever book we
wish. From "Mein Kampf" to "Das Kapital".
And were is the borderline and who defines them and who
decides on what books I may read ? Begin with Tintin
and soon is bye bye Tarzan, so long Phantom, good bye
Mandrake. And why stop at comics ? Throw "Huckleberry
Finn" as well, or "Uncle Tom's Cabin".
| Submitted by: | alain de kuyssche (alain.de.kuyssche@moulinsart.be) 9/3/2009 2:45:39 AM PT |
| Location: | brussels |
| Occupation: | communication manager of moulinsart |
Just a few notes. The Congolese "student" isn't student at all. In 2007, he was 38 years old and "student" at the University of Belgium... where he left no trace. In 2009, he is miracoulusly 41 years old and accountant (where ? An other mystery).
The original "Tintin in Congo" goes back to 1931. In 1946, Hergé revised his book in the sense of more respect for the African people. In 1959, the official Belgian schoolbooks were still printing horrors like : "the Congolese negroes are lazy, not reliable, supersticious, drunkards. They are bright and intelligent up to the age of 12. After that, they become stupid" (source : "Manuel de Géographie de Belgique et du Congo", by M. Contreras).
I am truly convinced that the judgement of the colonial period is to be done and hasn't so far. But Hergé = racist is stupid and insulting because he was one of the first to revise his "colonial" opinions and express his regrets.
| Submitted by: | Linda 8/25/2009 6:13:26 PM PT |
| Location: | Pennsylvania |
| Occupation: | Book enthusiast |
This is a classic example of reverse racism. If the characters were white, as so many are in modern "urban" movies and books, then there would be no basis for caucasian outrage in this modern culture. Everyone should remember the parable of Stone Soup, grow a tougher skin and move on. Like it or not, we cannot truly erase history, though it appears that is the intent with so many bannings of "culturally outdated" books. The librarians were probably under tremendous political pressure from the board and afraid for their jobs, because that is what it has come down to: do what the minority groups say or be labeled a racist and fired.
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