Erin Durkin and Simone Weichselbaum, New York Daily News, August 21, 2009
Brooklyn’s chief librarian has yanked a nearly 80-year-old book from the shelves because it depicts Africans as monkeys.
Tintin Au Congo is the only book in the city library system hidden from public view after a reader complained that it was “racially offensive.”
The popular Belgian children’s work—due to be made into a movie by Steven Spielberg—is locked behind a series of hidden doors on the third floor of Brooklyn’s central library.
“‘Tintin au Congo’ was relocated,” said director Richard Reyes-Gavilan. It “had illustrations that were racially offensive and inappropriate for children.”
The curious have to make an appointment to see the original Georges (Herge) Remi piece. The next available date was Monday morning, said a library official.
{snip}
Spielberg isn’t offended either. The famed filmmaker will put Tintin on the big screen in 2011, highlighting the adventures of the young reporter who travels the world with his dog, Snowy.
Herge was a Belgian enthusiast who pushed a pro-colonial message, as Tintin taught dopey natives right from wrong during his travels to foreign lands.
{snip}
Library officials across the city said they’ve debated pulling about 25 books and DVDs from city shelves, including “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” by Ann Coulter, and a Harold Robbins novel, but rejected the requests.
Only “Tintin” was blacklisted in Brooklyn—and quietly yanked from the shelves in 2007.
{snip}
“The public library caters to the sensitivity of the community. People are trying to erase the mistakes of the past.”
Original article
(Posted on August 24, 2009)
Comments
C’est tres bien! Merci beaucoups, Monsieur Herge!
I had expected much worse — until I saw the picture.
What’s the big deal? It’s much ado about nothing. Somebody’s feelings got hurt again by seeing reality, instead of glamourized versions of African Kings and Queens. Or of your typical black scientists and philosophers solving the problems of the Universe.
Ah, but this is how it WAS!
People are trying to erase the mistakes of the past.”
Not only is the past being erased, it is being re-written!
I grew up with TinTin comics that were reprinted in a children’s magazine and I was always charmed by the cute illustrations. The illustration above does NOT picture the Africans as monkeys (there’s that chip-on-the-shoulder-paranoia rearing its ugly head again). The illustration shows them with exaggerated lips, a common cartoonist’s convention of bygone years. (Cartoons are supposed to exaggerate.)
I can’t wait for the Speilberg movie. No doubt blacks will be the smartest characters in the film. Talk about a caricature.
You see, blacks always have and always will be seen as “different” than whites (because they are), but nowadays they have to be portrayed as better, more heroic and smarter than whites.
Brooklyn’s chief librarian has yanked a nearly 80-year-old book from the shelves because it depicts Africans as monkeys.
It does nothing of the sort — as can be seen from the illustration, the author, Herge, depicted them as crude caricatures with oversized lips, not monkeys. It’s reflective of a particular European attitude of the time (1930s), which was more paternalistic and condescending than hateful.
I read the book years ago (circa age 12), and cannot remember any text which explicitly mentioned racial differences, just some jibes at African primitiveness. Herge was no Lothrop Stoddard. I will say, though, that the Africans are drawn to a distinctly cruder order of caricature than any other race that appears in the series, so much so that they do barely seem human. It didn’t stir up any “forbidden” thoughts in me (that came years later), but it was so blatant as to actually distract from the storytelling. It wasn’t all that clever or funny. I’m sure that banning the book on these grounds, though, will cause it to skyrocket in popularity.
I won’t make an appointment with the Library to look at this book. I will just buy several copies, and give them to my children, as well as my Nieces, and Nephews.
“Library officials across the city said they’ve debated pulling about 25 books and DVDs from city shelves, including “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” by Ann Coulter, and a Harold Robbins novel, but rejected the requests.”
Right after book burning they’re planning to bur heretics of political correctness at the stake to sho how “progressive” they are.
We’re back in Salem in the 1600’s. The radical left is full of neanderthals.
Man, I’m a HUGE fan of Tintin. I’ve been reading those books for about 20 years.
But about this article…there’s no indication to me that Herge actually intended the Africans to be monkeys. They’re depicted in an unrealistic style but so is everyone else in the Tintin series; it’s a CARTOON! The act of distorting the human appearance and exaggerating features is integral to cartooning as is the employment of cultural stereotypes. Certainly Herge was wrapped up in the colonialist mindset but his white characters were not always geniuses: Haddock was a drunkard; the Thompsons were hopelessly incompetent detectives. The list could almost be extended indefinitely. I don’t believe in Political Correctness at all because no-one has the right to NOT be offended. Any form of art or expression will naturally disturb or even offend SOMEONE because no point of view is universally held. This is the price that must be paid for a free society.
I don’t get it, how are the Africans depicted as monkeys? The only thing I can see which MIGHT be objectionable is the oversized lips but how does showing blacks with big lips, a trait which most Africans do in fact do in fact possess, mean you are showing them as monkeys? Isn’t the person crying monkey the one who is racist, I mean I don’t immediately think when I see that picture….
Also what the heck is going on with locking the book “behind a series of hidden doors on the third floor of Brooklyn’s central library.”
Is this a library book or the Ark of the Covenant? They are hiding the book in secret rooms in the Brooklyn Library? Sounds like something from Indiana Jones! Any other New York Amreners out there up for a quest for the forbidden library book? You bring a pick axe, I’ll bring my library card!
Of course the Africans aren’t realistic looking? Is Tintin realistic-looking?
“Herge … pushed a pro-colonial message, as Tintin taught dopey natives right from wrong during his travels to foreign lands.”
Totally not, except maybe in this one; the reporter didn’t do his homework. Tintin is awesome, not patronizing, stuff to grow on for kids. (The first couple are lower-quality than the rest.)
People are trying to erase the mistakes of the past.”
Not only is the past being erased, it is being re-written!
This is why I’m trying to develop a library of books by writers
I have a copy. Britsih Amazon stills sells it.
And in France you can still buy Banania products. Their mugs make a great statement in the office.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banania
Since the book is almost surely within the public domain the best way to get around the censors is for some enterprising soul to scan it and put it online.
Where are the leftists cries of “Censorship!! Banning books is just what Hitler did!!!” and their usual empty slogans?
Can we also assume the New York libraries will pull all books that depict White men as weak, dishonest, and racist?
Where are the leftists cries of “Censorship!! Banning books is just what Hitler did!!!” and their usual empty slogans?
Exactly right, this is the liberal version of “free speech,” which amounts to “You’re free to read anything you like, as long as it doesn’t Offend of our precious favored groups.”
I recommend the Japanese anime series “Library Wars ” as a good example of how far this literary censorship can go.
There is an added facet to this. It’s not only how the cartoon portrays blacks, but it’s also how it portrays WHITES. It clearly shows the White Man as the authority, the master, the one in the unquestioned position of power. No pretense of equality here!
Perhaps that’s the most grating thing to hyper-sensitive blacks today — seeing themselves not as glorious kings and queens after all, but as simple primitives serving the White Man. How exasperating!
But up until about the end of WW2, that is how it WAS! I have read travel books about the early explorers of Africa, with photographs (most of Africa was only explored quite recently, within the age of photography), and others written by adventurous European and American travelers in Africa (such as Teddy Roosevelt), as well as travel film documentaries; and before air travel, motor vehicles, or paved roads that is how explorers and tourists were carried — in sedan chairs by the local blacks. Far from being resentful, those blacks were glad to have the employment. There is nothing erroneous about that picture!
Up until WW2 or shortly thereafter, that is how it was, until the commencement of the African liberation movements in the 50s (all rooted in Europe, btw — all run by Africans, like Kenyatta, who had been sent to Europe to study and who came back as trained, committed Marxists and revolutionaries).
What I am saying is that even their revolutionary movements and national ideologies were not indigenous but were inspired and guided from Europe (same with India, Cambodia, VietNam, etc.). And when most, or nearly all, of their governments obtained their independence, it was not “won” by them (as they like to boast today) but it was GIVEN to them … handed to them on a platter by socialistic governments in Europe that were fully committed to the dismantlement of colonialism after the war.
If certain subversive leftists in Europe had not trained and sponsored the revolutionaries that would fight against herself, those African porters would still be carrying sedan chairs, not machine guns. If Europe had really wanted to remain, it would easily have done so. But after the carnage of the war, it lost its spirit to prevail.
“Rule Britania!” became “Retreat Britania!” Same with France, Belgium, Holland, etc. Portugal (being less socialistic) hung on to its African possessions longer than the others; but faced with massive international pressure and boycotts (just as Rhodesia and South Africa were later to face, one by one) it caved in the 1970s. Each in its turn has gone under; now it’s coming to Europe and America. It’s getting to be our turn.
When Europeans left those colonies, thinking they were shedding all those sticky problems and leaving them behind, the colonials with all their problems in tow simply followed the whites back into their home countries. Now, those inflamed revolutionaries that once fought “colonialism” abroad, are inside Europe, angry as ever, and threatening the home countries themselves. (And very much present in Brooklyn too!) As it’s turned out, giving the former colonial possessions their independence was NOT the solution to black jealousy, nor was it the end of the story! Not by any means.
I have to make an appointment? Sign me up!
I’m telling you, if I had some kids, that is, if a hyper-intelligent, highly educated, handsome, so-white-I’m-see-through, 23 year old White man in this country were seen as desirable by White women anymore (as opposed to what Hollywood tells them what to find attractive) and I was capable of having some kids, I’d buy ‘em all TinTin books.
I always wondered if the “people” that are so hellbent on reducing the West to just a smudge on a paper had any idea that what they’re doing is going to lead to a tremendous backlash and a rise of the far right unlike anything seen before. I mean, I used to be a liberal. Now I’m sold.
Whitey Ford wrote:
I think we can assume (given the present pattern that we see developing) that in time all historical works, photographs, art, novels, movies, statues, even childrens’ books, toys, and dolls, that depict Africans other than favorably (or as they’d like to be depicted) will be pulled and banned.
For instance, I’ve seen fountains in Europe (Rome? by Bernini?) that despict allegorical statues of the African and American continents, in the form of their primitive peoples, paying homage at the feet of civilized Europe. Those works of art will have to go! Racially insensitive!
Who knows what laws will be implemented? The 21st century, as it moves along could prove to be a time of massive “cleaning out” of our libraries, museums, film archives, etc. A total re-structuring of our entire culture. Even of our language (which we already see happening). There’s just too much there that somebody or other is going to find “offensive”.
A Moslem take-over in any European country (not at all far-fetched) would greatly further this, as Moslems have no patience for Western culture or art, and their intolenance could be justified on the basis of religion. The book burnings of the past could turn out to be as nothing in comparison to what’s coming. Who knows? I fear for the future.
This is PC hypersensitivity run amok! Tintin books are timeless classics, beautifully drawn and captivating to children. I grew up on these books and felt sorry for the stupid kids in my class who would rather shoot hoops or waste their time keepin’ it real in da hood, who didn’t sit down with these great adventures and expand their minds and imaginations. Now these same touchy, ignorant fools want to tell my kids what’s appropriate?
My father had a copy of «Tintin au Congo», and I read it many times. Although it’s not the best of all Tintin albums, it’s great!
I think Tintin is pretty harless, and it is a cartoon that actually teaches things to kids. Things like geography, history, and even stuff about boats and airplanes.
If «Tintin au Congo» is banned, hidden away in that library, I hope they’ll quickly do the same with their catalogue of racist anti-White gangsta rap CDs!
Banning “Tintin au Congo” is actually nothing new: in 2007 in Belgium, shortly after the French government was debating legislation passed in 2005 by the center-right that would require teachers to highlight the positive role of colonialism in the French territories, an ungrateful african exchange student from Congo went to the high courts in Brussels to demand that “Tintin au Cogo” be banned.
Just google “Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo” : that is the name of the unhappy Congolese student, whose wrath at seeing his kin depicted as “imbeciles,” resulted in the UK and USA branches of Boarders Books pulling “Tintin au Congo” from the shelves of their comic books section, and replacing it like a bad porn novel in the “adult” section.
Imagine fellow Amrenners with what appalling facility the rabid leftists have made it possible for 3rd worldersto advance their personal agendas in Europe today: all these ungrateful former subjects need do is cry racism, and suddenly they become pseudo-celebrities. Achievement for them is defined not so much by actually accomplishing something, as it is by sucking up to the leftist revisionist playbook.
I would say that Europe stopped being Europe around 1948, the year in which “Berlin Express” was filmed; the same year in which the first shipment of Africans was delivered to the United Kingdom, courtesy of Jamaica; the same year in which a broken Europe, blood-let of mostly young white men after six years of war, commenced rebuilding with the help of the Marshall Plan….
Mmmmm,
one of the most amusing things to watch is ‘ban books day’ a big liberal self celebration of their triumph over nazism. They read passages from ‘banned’ books, almost always books banned 50+ years ago, something pornographic or ‘banned’ by christians. books banned by the left are almost never included, despite the fact that most books that are banned these days are done so for marxist/ racial reasons.
