Tintin au Congo: It's Racist, but should it be pulled from library shelves?

Racism = Bad. Books = Good. Books that are Racist = Hidden?

Ruby Washington/The New York Times
The vault-like room in the Brooklyn Public Library where
“Tintin au Congo” was reshelved after a patron took issue with the book.

So in yesterday's NY Times City Room, there was this fascinating article talking about how sometimes a library will basically HIDE a book from its patrons, to avoid offending anyone accidentally.

The example was the undeniably racist second Tintin book, which even the author, Hergé, toned down in later editions. (You can click here and scroll down to the bottom to see the different versions!)

The book in question, "Tintin au Congo," now has to be specially requested, and there's a waiting period - something that curiously, there isn't really for buying and taking home something like, uh, a gun.

But that's another issue entirely.

What fascinated me was that when the article was discussing challenges to books in school libraries, this "solution" to the issue came up again and again. Like here:

“The Million Dollar Kick,” Dan Gutman’s tale of a young soccer player, will stay in the librarian’s office at Hassler Elementary School in Klein, Tex., until the parents who objected to it no longer have children at the school, according to the civil liberties group.

Okay, so they're basically HIDING the books that might offend?

Yikes.

Instead of hiding the books, isn't this where the filter of a parent or teacher or librarian is supposed to jump in? Isn't the ubiquity of the racism in "Tintin Au Congo" a "teachable moment" for an adult to have with a child?

And what really steams me about "The Million Dollar Kick" example above is that because the book offended one parent, EVERY other kid and parent during those school years that the offended parent's children are in that school are denied the chance to read it, as it hides away in the librarian's office!

Maybe the issue isn't that kids aren't able to handle these books and their content. Maybe it's that we as adults aren't willing to be the interpreters for them. We're too lazy or scared to help the kids understand the issues behind the offensiveness.

I guess it's kind of like asking if Nazis should have free speech rights.

I'm not talking about incitement to violence speech, but that stupid Aryan-race-being-better-crap. If we disallow their freedoms, isn't it a slippery slope until our own freedoms collapse as well?

And yet, I remain troubled. Without an interpreter, would reading the racist content of "Tintin au Congo" make a child accept those stereotypes about people from Africa? And what about the Black child who stumbles upon the book, and it's effect on their own self-image?

What would YOU do? Would "Tintin au Congo" find a place in the regular shelves of YOUR library?

What would be YOUR solution to this book challenge?

Let me know!

Namaste,

Lee