Tintin Book Removed

[Spike Spiegel]

Originally Posted by Drtooth

Changing these things is actually MORE racist than letting them exist. They try to white wash history, not letting kids know that people used to really hate each other back in the day and still do.

I think that we as human beings should try to learn from these unfortunate mistakes. I read a few (very) old comics of Tintin when I was very very young and vaguely remember finding racial stereotypes in it. I am not sure that it was this particular volume, but as an African-American myself, it's kind of difficult to be offended when one sees this kind of crap all the time anyway...

[Drtooth]

Originally Posted by Ecto Jedi

Somehow, this comes to mind. (Warning: thar be cherished and beloved cartoon characters doing all sorts of things to gross Asian stereotypes.)

You see, the only racial things that bug me from the actual SOUND cartoons (I was thinking of really old ones, like the one the Itchy cartoon from the epiosde of the Simpsons "the Day the Violence died." was a parody of) was that particular Bugs Bunny Cartoon (I hate shallow endings, unless they are done well) and the 1940's War Cartoons. I also remember reading Japan made Anti-Popeye cartoons at that time, so the world balances out.

Funny thing no one said anything about Asterix. In the older ones there WAS some stereotyping. In Asterix and Cleopatra, a lot of Cleo's servants were those stereotypical Black characatures with those big lips. No one seems to bring that up. but then again, Tin Tin's getting a US made move, and Asterix and the Vikings is never going to be released on US DVD.

[Sewer Bull]

Originally Posted by Voltron

I. . . still don't see how that worked, Rob. I'm just not that smart, I suppose.

Imagine a cartoonist working for a German newspaper in the 30s. He himself didn't have to be terribly anti-Semitic but since the editor placed orders for some anti-Jewish cartoons... well, he had to draw them or he might have lost his job.

Originally Posted by Drtooth

Funny thing no one said anything about Asterix. In the older ones there WAS some stereotyping. In Asterix and Cleopatra, a lot of Cleo's servants were those stereotypical Black characatures with those big lips. No one seems to bring that up. but then again, Tin Tin's getting a US made move, and Asterix and the Vikings is never going to be released on US DVD.

The point is - earlier volumes of Tintin were intended to be slightly supremacist, unlike Asterix.

[Katie]

Originally Posted by Marty McFly

I think that we as human beings should try to learn from these unfortunate mistakes. I read a few (very) old comics of Tintin when I was very very young and vaguely remember finding racial stereotypes in it. I am not sure that it was this particular volume, but as an African-American myself, it's kind of difficult to be offended when one sees this kind of crap all the time anyway...

I agree. If kids are exposed to this, they are not automatically doomed to racism. In my own young childhood I was exposed to OLD racist kids books (any of you ever seen Little Black Sambo??) and Loony Tunes (OLD ones) That book was one of my mother's old books from when she was a child. I read it over and over and over. It hasn't scarred me. In fact, I think I'm better for having been exposed to that stuff and seeing how horrible some of those things were. There comes a point in your life, whether you realize it or not, when you make the choice to follow the sins of the past or go your own way.

I also have to say that from a very early age I really found myself wondering why there was such a fuss about differences. All I knew at the time was black and white (funny since I am half Native American, huh) I thought my daddy was black and my mom was white......and thinking that very young made little Katie think things like race through a whole lot more than most kids my age.

[Drtooth]

Originally Posted by Sewer Bull

The point is - earlier volumes of Tintin were intended to be slightly supremacist, unlike Asterix.

Yeah... I thought this story came up mainly due to the fact it would have been great press for the movie they intend to make.

I know that originally Tintin was published in a Nazi sympathiser paper. There was some amazing special on PBS a while back that dealth with it.