Opening a Nice, Big Can of Shut-the-Fuck-Up for Our Congolese Guest, Dept.

Tintin book accused of colonial racism - Telegraph

A Congolese student, Mbutu Mondondo Bienvenu, has filed a complaint before Belgium's state prosecutor against the 1931 story, Tintin in the Congo, because the natives of that region are depicted in said comic book as somewhat less than fully civilized.

Mondondo Bienvenu is demanding the book be withdrawn from the shelves and, in the spirit of bullshit nuisance suits everywhere, is pressing for "symbolic damages" of one euro from Moulinsart, the Belgian company that holds the rights to the Tintin stories.

This copycat nitwit was likely unaware of this horrible, terrible comic book until hearing about the complaint filed by a shopper in London against the book when she discovered that--horrors!--it contained attitudes and images that jibed with the prevailing colonialist prejudices of the time.

Mondondo Bienvenu claims that the book should be banned as it "constitutes an insult for all the Congolese" and that "Belgian school children should not be exposed to this kind of racist commentary. It is propaganda for colonialism."

Now, some might argue that the absolute shit state of the Congo since independence might be the best propaganda of all for colonialism but, unfortunately, they are not perched behind Mr. Mondondo Bienvenu with an army sock full of manure.

They might also note that, of the one thousand problems currently besetting the Congo, its depiction in a seventy-six-year-old comic book might number one-thousand-and-first.

So, as the sun sets on Mbutu Mondondo Bienvenu, I quote Bernard Baruch or was it Baruch Spinoza? who said, build a bridge and get over it. Dickhead.