Newswire Tintin causes racism uproar

by Jason Heller July 13, 2007
The racism of Georges "Hergé" Remi's Tintin graphic novels gets discussed every time the upcoming Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson Tintin movie comes up, but it looks like Borders in Great Britain is taking the charge seriously: After a customer filed a complaint with Britain's Committee For Racial Equality last month in response to the offensive portrayal of African people in the Belgian cartoonist's 1931 book Tintin In The Congo, the retailer has removed it from its children's sections. Said the protester, "My black wife, who actually comes from Africa originally, is sitting there with my boys, and I'm about to hand this book to them.... What message am I sending to them? That my wife is a monkey, that they are monkeys?"

Later in his life, Hergé expressed regret about the book, and censored versions have appeared in print throughout the years. Borders has agreed to move Tintin In The Congo to the adult graphic novel section of its stores, though the CRE has said, "The only place that it might be acceptable for this to be displayed would be in a museum with a big sign saying 'old fashioned, racist claptrap.'"

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