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Are the Tintin Books Racist? Yes, Absolutely

The Tintin books are super racist, stuffed with offensive stereotypes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the parts of them that are heartwarming and hilarious. Krishnadev Calamur, a fellow Tintin aficionado, writes of the comics’ very obvious bigotry and his nevertheless unflagging enjoyment of them:

“There’s certainly irony in a child of the former colonies idolizing a character who might be dismissed by casual critics as a proxy for the white-man’s burden (and by more serious ones as a racist). But I couldn’t entirely disavow the series. What those comics taught me was that heroes, even boyish, never-aging ones like Tintin, are deeply flawed, and if you ruminate on something long enough, even a cherished childhood memory, you will inevitably see those flaws clearly. There were things that I loved about Tintin that made it easier to reject those things I did not — without ignoring them altogether.”

In other words, your fave is problematic.

A mashup of Tintin and Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Artwork by Graphix17.
A mashup of Tintin and Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Artwork by Graphix17.

(If you’ve never read Tintin before, start here.)

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