Should Tintin book be banned.?

Question

I came across this new Item today in Yahoo. This comic series was first published in 1931, and one of the books in the series depicts Africans as simple minded and ape-like.

A row was caused when customers complained about the racist content and had the book pulled from the children’s section.

My opinion:

I do not believe that racist material should be displayed in the children’s section of bookstores. I do not think that such books should be banned, however. We have a history of racism and colonialism that should not be swept under the rug.

There are a lot of examples of history being sugar coated;

*There was the outcry over the Japanese high school history texts glossing over the atrocities committed in China.

*I fly model airplanes, and about ten years ago, model manufactures stopped including swastikas in the decals sets for scale models of German aircraft of WWII.

*I reviewed a question in this very forum that revealed that many young Americans do not know that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.

There is an old saying that those that forget history are doomed to repeat it. If we look at the history of the last 4000 years, there has been a lot of forgetting.

Answer 1

Books are banned by a vocal minority who determines what the rest of us (whether or not we agree) can read. We need to get vocal back and demand that our libraries create a special section for banned books which any adult can read and any child with parental permission can read.

It should include:

Mother Goose
Little Black Sambo
Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Mein Kampf
The Little Prince
Harry Potter
The Satanic Verses
The DaVinci Code
and any other book that has been banned across the centuries.

Might be the most read section in the library.

Answer 2

Not banned. I just hope that somebody raises awareness to the genocide that took place in the Belgian Congo.
Children should not have racism hidden from them. They should know the levity with which Europeans treated prejudice, discrimination and violence against non-whites even when they were not themselves racist. Children should not be brought up to think that it is enough to condemn racism in public and avoid making politically incorrect statements. Children should be taught the colonial crimes of the past and taught that all humanity is kindred.
Otherwise, as you suggested, we have a lot of mistakes to repeat for the last 4000 years of history not taught.

Besides, who the hell reads Tin Tin and thinks this guy is some sort of internationalist. The comics are great, if put into context. One must realize that it is really difficult to extirpate the history of racism since it is pervasive to this day.

But that is just the opinion of South American mongrel.... not quite non-white but most definitely not white... god knows the prejudices that I hold having been born in this twisted planet of blood thirsty bigots. Hey, one does what one can.

Answer 3

Those that have a problem or don't understand why it should be removed or the ones that have never nor ever will be subjected to always having to walk around seeing images and depictions of their own race being made fun of, humiliated, thought less of, false prejudices formed and etc..( not to mention having to prove to the idiots of the races that you are able to form a complete thought contrary to what their preconcieved notions of you are). For those of you who can't understand something as simple as that should have a book as well as a movie written and told about how narrow minded and ignorant you all are.

Seeing the 4 rating of thumbs up to the self proclaimed racist on here it's no wonder we continue to debate over a subject that has such a simple answer to it..... It's not about forgeting, it's about respect.

Answer 4

Banning books should never be an option. True, the book does have racist overtones, but the time period in which it was written should be taken into consideration. People weren't as PC as they are today, and pictures and images like the natives in Tintin weren't thought of as vile and disgusting as they are today. However, while a book like that published today would be more in line with your hate mongers and racists than with the general public, to completely stop publishing a book simply because people find it objectionable and not suited toward the ideology of the culture is crazy.

Answer 5

The book is old enough to be placed in the adult section. Most of the content has no reference to today's children anyway. To them it would be quaint at best and incomprehensible at the worst. As to the issue with the "racial slurs", this was the attitude of the people at the time. It is a faithful recounting of what was going on at the time.

Our black friends are way too thin skinned when it comes to caricatures of themselves. I'm Irish and we are still depicted as being drunkards, living in squalid conditions, wearing a green top hat, a green frock coat, and sporting fuzzy hair and curly beard. If our colored friends don't like how they are depicted, do what the Irish have done - OWN IT! Poke fun at it at every chance. Acknowledge that, yes, this was how we were once seen, ain't it ridiculous. It short, make a boggart of it as in Harry Potter. Don't get up in arms and all offended. It just exacerbates the situation.

Answer 6

i don't see how shifting the e book to the person section is in any way going to assist cut back the point of offence that the CRE declare is being brought about (except ethnic minority communities are banned from the person sections of public severe highway bookshops?). i think of the CRE are inflicting greater of a difficulty right here. little ones examining the books ought to advance up in a society which perspectives the racial ideals and stereotypes that they contain as previous, primitive and socially unacceptable. devoid of the books as a benchmark against which maturing infants can choose the present-day perspectives, there's a possibility that those little ones will see the sought after perspectives as pointless or over-reactive and start to dismiss them. we don't conceal the greater barbaric area of human historic previous (the enslavement and transportation of West Africans, for occasion) from little ones in school because of the fact we've long ordinary that our previous is our maximum respected coaching gadget. We shelter the Remembrance Day social gathering because of the fact we'd like international conflict to be locked into that component of our psyches that concurs with all and sundry else that it's going to "on no account back" take place. The Tin Tin books are component of historic previous which show that society became into not as enlightened whilst they have been written and are, whilst measured by utilising at present's standards, amazing arguments against their very own contents. The CRE have - imho - shot themselves in the foot this time.

Answer 7

From the description of the book I'm getting from news articles it seems like it never was intended to be racist. It sounds like it was intended to be a facniful adventure story in the African jungles where, up until rather recently, there were tribes living in the jungles who practiced canibalism. I doubt the author ever intended to be rascit, but made a stroy based on what he felt was in the collctive imagination of children at the time.

Answer 8

I agree with you, we should not ban this book but we should move it from the children's section.

Years ago the Shel Silverstein book "Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book: A Primer for Tender Young Minds" - was in the children's section (at least it was at my local Border's) even though this was never intended for children, it was placed in with Shel Silverstein's other books that happen to belong in that section. Today it is in Adult Humor and the new cover has a "For Adults" label.

Answer 9

I think I remember another time there was some censorship of books. It was in Germany and was called Chrystal Night (english translation). The book may be wrong and filled with hate as many books are however we need to keep publishing them. If we stop one of the freedoms we hold dear, then we only need to wait for another to go.

Answer 10

there are many times when a writer writing a book offends someone, somehow. think this age of " political correctness " has gone to far. there are times when not only writers but the average citizen ( especially older folks ) may say something which in their day was used without thought but today's society frowns on the use of the term.