Legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg is working on a film depicting the title character of Tintin Au Congo (Tehn Tehn Aw), a controversial 1929 cartoon by Belgian illustrator Herge. The Brooklyn Library System took the unusual step of restricting access to the book after patrons and others complained the comic strip depicts Africans as simple-minded, less-than-human, savage monkeys. The comic strip has been criticised in the past as racist, colonialist, and depicting cruelty to animals; the writer and illustrator Herge himself repudiated his own work as the "sin of [his] youth."
Staff of the Library still have access to the book while members of the public may make appointments to view the tome. Bookseller Borders also took steps to restrict access to the book by moving it from the children's section to the adult graphic novels section. A spokesperson for the Spielberg project said the filmmaker--who has an adopted African-American son--would not utilize any objectionable material in the film.
Source: NY Times
Shame on Spielberg. This is insulting to his own black son. He should know better than to uplift racist stereotypes since he is a Jewish person himself.
ReplyDeletewhat is being depicted never happened in Africa in the 1920's? If not, then Roots was racist and should have never been shown on TV
ReplyDelete^^have you even researched the book? Just look at the pictures! They look like a minstrel show. Do you look like that? Does your mama look like a monkey? The black people were barely even people in those books. They were more like the jungle animals.
ReplyDeleteI would hope your mother neither looks like a monkey in a cartoon from almost 100 years ago nor Kizzy from Roots
ReplyDeleteKizzy was a cutie!
ReplyDelete