Yes, Tintin Is Crazy Racist and Anti-Semitic. No My Kids Won't See It
Back in the late 1970s when I was a kid roaming the stacks at my local public library, I wandered across a set of adventure books with a character named Tintin. I read the back cover of one and it looked fun. I loved Tintin's cute dog named Snowy. However, my mom always reviewed the books I was taking home so she saw a Tintin book in my to-be-checked-out stack.
"You can't get that one," she said, removing the Tintin book from arms. "Those stories are racist."
Of course, I decided that I was going to read the Tintin books on the sly during the two (sometimes three) hours we'd spend in the library every week. Well, then I picked up a well-worn copy of Tintin in the Congo. There on the cover was a black guy with bright red lips. Hmm...I'd seen that kind of imagery before and it was a red flag for me. But, I cracked the book open, read it, and wow, my mom was right.
Just as I'd seen black Americans portrayed as bumbling, monkey-like idiots, black Africans--the Congolese people--were being depicted in a similar light. I was done with Tintin before we even really got started.
Later on I found out that some Tintin stories also depicted Jewish characters as sinister villains and moneylenders. So showing black folks as animal-like and an anti-Semitic angle...WINNING!
Fast forward to 2011 when a Tintin movie is about to come out here in the U.S. Last night I asked on Twitter, "Curious if there are other parents out there who are not taking their kids to see Tintin because of it's racist, anti-Semitic history."
One of the responses, from Side-Line Magazine, retweeted my tweet, prefacing it with "load of crap."
This morning, I asked them for clarification, tweeting back, "I'm sorry, what's a load of crap, a movie based on a racist book character or... ?"
Their reply? "not a racist character at all. I think you've never read cokes in stock, the blue lotus. All very humanistic Tintin stories."
Of course, Side-Line is based in Belgium, home of Tintin author and illustrator Hergé. I can understand being patriotic for your country, but c'mon son, don't act like what happened didn't happen. I can also appreciate that Hergé's attitudes changed over the years. But that still doesn't mean I have to support it. Or that I have to act like I don't know the real history of Tintin.
I'm not alone in my concerns about Tintin. A human rights lawyer in the U.K. recently lobbied to get it removed from children's bookstores. That led to the Telegraph posting a list of the racist allegations against Tintin. Gems like:
I've also heard how some Congolese just love them some Tintin. Colonialism, like slavery and Jim Crow wasn't just physical oppression. Psychological oppression did a number on folks of African descent, too.
I know, pointing out the truth is spoiling all the fun. Some people will say I shouldn't be so sensitive...Everything can't be perfect and the past is in the past, right? Spielberg is Jewish so if it was racist or anti-Semitic, he would refuse to make the film, so what's my problem?
Explain to me how I'm supposed to forget racist depictions of black people in the source text for a film and take my children, who get called the n-word at school, to see it? Yeah, right. I'm just going to have to be sensitive because this film won't get a dime of my money.
"You can't get that one," she said, removing the Tintin book from arms. "Those stories are racist."
Of course, I decided that I was going to read the Tintin books on the sly during the two (sometimes three) hours we'd spend in the library every week. Well, then I picked up a well-worn copy of Tintin in the Congo. There on the cover was a black guy with bright red lips. Hmm...I'd seen that kind of imagery before and it was a red flag for me. But, I cracked the book open, read it, and wow, my mom was right.
Just as I'd seen black Americans portrayed as bumbling, monkey-like idiots, black Africans--the Congolese people--were being depicted in a similar light. I was done with Tintin before we even really got started.
Later on I found out that some Tintin stories also depicted Jewish characters as sinister villains and moneylenders. So showing black folks as animal-like and an anti-Semitic angle...WINNING!
Fast forward to 2011 when a Tintin movie is about to come out here in the U.S. Last night I asked on Twitter, "Curious if there are other parents out there who are not taking their kids to see Tintin because of it's racist, anti-Semitic history."
One of the responses, from Side-Line Magazine, retweeted my tweet, prefacing it with "load of crap."
This morning, I asked them for clarification, tweeting back, "I'm sorry, what's a load of crap, a movie based on a racist book character or... ?"
Their reply? "not a racist character at all. I think you've never read cokes in stock, the blue lotus. All very humanistic Tintin stories."
Of course, Side-Line is based in Belgium, home of Tintin author and illustrator Hergé. I can understand being patriotic for your country, but c'mon son, don't act like what happened didn't happen. I can also appreciate that Hergé's attitudes changed over the years. But that still doesn't mean I have to support it. Or that I have to act like I don't know the real history of Tintin.
I'm not alone in my concerns about Tintin. A human rights lawyer in the U.K. recently lobbied to get it removed from children's bookstores. That led to the Telegraph posting a list of the racist allegations against Tintin. Gems like:
"In 2007, the UK's Commission for Racial Equality called for the same book to be banned, saying it contained imagery and words of racial prejudice. One of the most controversial scenes shows a Congolese woman bowing before Tintin, saying: "White man very great. White mister is big juju man".
I've also heard how some Congolese just love them some Tintin. Colonialism, like slavery and Jim Crow wasn't just physical oppression. Psychological oppression did a number on folks of African descent, too.
I know, pointing out the truth is spoiling all the fun. Some people will say I shouldn't be so sensitive...Everything can't be perfect and the past is in the past, right? Spielberg is Jewish so if it was racist or anti-Semitic, he would refuse to make the film, so what's my problem?
Explain to me how I'm supposed to forget racist depictions of black people in the source text for a film and take my children, who get called the n-word at school, to see it? Yeah, right. I'm just going to have to be sensitive because this film won't get a dime of my money.
Comments
I grew up in the 60s and read many of my parents' old books from the 30s and 40s. Many of them casually threw around stereotypes. Even when I was young I noticed that. Sometimes I associated them with that specific character. I was lucky enough that I truly saw Little Black Sambo as a happy caring family story.
Those days are gone, for better and worse.
Jenny
Every christmas white people get dressed up like black people, they wear kinky wigs, paint their skin black and rub red lipstick around their mouth.
They do this to look like 'black peter' St Nicholas's helper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet
I cringe at christmas when all the food wrapping paper shop windows are full of the 'black peter' character.
I was only about 7 years old (at the time) but I was so upset, I threw away the book.
Kid can be very impressionable and they sometimes see themselves in others and look up to others who look like them. Judas was not about to be my role model.
It's a common excuse that a book is simply "of its time" and that should be allowed for. But that's exactly the way prejudice is kept alive, through derogatory texts that keep circulating year after year.
I do remember as a kid one of my favorite books was Dr. Dolittle's Circus. As an adult I discovered most Dolittle titles included a hefty slice of racism.
I'm glad my parents sheltered me from the racist Dolittle titles, but -- for me personally -- I'm glad they didn't let the racism of the other titles prevent me from reading the non-racist one.
I don't know, though -- a movie/book tie-in might be different. Even if the film itself doesn't have the racism of the books, it's trading on the brand, and if part of that brand is racism ...
(Thinking about it more ... I grew up in the north with southern parents, and often heard relatives (never my parents, though) express racist views. The message I got was, "This utterance is unacceptable, but you can (indeed, have to) break bread with someone who utters it." That worked for my family -- they were willing to move 500 miles from my grandparents, but not to cut ties completely -- but I recognize it's a compromise that would be unacceptable to many.)
I recall reading some Tintin books, although I can't remember a thing about them except the main characters.
My sons aren't into Looney Toons characters that much, simply because I haven't let them watch them. But they have seen Space Jam because we're from Chicagoland--Michael Jordan rules--and my husband loved watching Space Jam with them. But I think the difference is that Warner Bros has done a LOT of acknowledgement that the racial stereotypes shown were wrong. That said I wouldn't let my kids watch Speedy Gonzales cartoons.
The other thing is that although you can still buy the uncensored original Looney Toons, they're not easily available and they come with a pretty clear statement about the racism they display. In comparison, for any kid to be able to walk into the children's section of a bookstore and see Tintin in the Congo, while the Tintin folks are all, "We're not racist!"--it's a nuanced difference, but it's a difference.
Melanie,
I told my sons about my concerns and they were surprised by the history and that a book with images like that would still be easily available. They don't want to see it anymore.
Phyllis,
That's fascinating that they hadn't thought about the racial implications when they read the book elsewhere. Thanks for sharing that.
Jenny,
I remember coming across so many books in the '70s with problematic stereotypes/imagery. I'm glad that my mom was so vigilant about that kind of stuff, even if I didn't always immediately understand why it was offensive.
Anon,
Oh good grief. Seriously? I think I'm suddenly glad I don't live in Belgium.
Anon,
Ugh, that's terrible. I'm glad you threw away the book.
Sundry,
I loved adventure stories as a kid--still do--and I remember how disappointed I was to discover that Tintin had these kinds of images. And I feel for all the folks who nowadays have their kids picking up copies of this.
Nick,
So very true. People are saying it's censorship to not sell this book with the racist imagery. I just don't "get" who'd want to buy it.
Molly,
Dr. Doolittle, too? Sigh.
I kinda agree with your parents. We all have to break bread with folks with differing views--and sometimes maintaining relationships can facilitate conversation and understanding of why it is that certain words and imagery is hurtful. But that's tricky, for sure.
BBJ
Glad to give some background on it. I don't recall too much of the one or two Tintin stories I read before coming across Tintin in the Congo, either.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2059145/Vatican-calls-Tintin-Catholic-hero-ridicules-suggestions-racist.html?ITO=1490
"In its official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican published a picture of the children's hero beneath one of Pope Benedict XVI and then carried a double page article inside praising Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy.
L'Osservatore said that accusing the fearless journalist of racism was the 'imagining of an integralist political correctness' after some bookshops in the UK banished Tintin in the Congo to the top shelf and wrapped copies in plastic."
Facepalm:
For what it's worth, I loved Tintin growing up (as well as Asterix), but past a certain age, it struck me just how racist it was (and I'm black African, which makes it doubly ironic). Colonialism and Imperialism go deep