[The Australian Panther]

Quotes from a Newspaper article I read today.

  Among the Dozens of Books by Herge, ... few provoke such strong feelings as TinTin in the Congo.
TinTin's homeland [Belgium] has been struck especially hard by the historical backlash from the BLM movement.

TinTin is so far safe [from physical depredations] - a grand museum to Herge in Louvain-la-Neuve, 40 km from Brussels is yet to be targeted by protesters. Yet the much-loved character risks being seen as an Apologist fro colonial rule. 'You shouldn't compare TinTin with Leopold II, but I expect People to start talking about TinTin in the Congo in the current context." said Phippipe Goddin, who wrote his own work last year about the book.

Although some consider it racist,Goddin says Herge [....] merely reflected the way the Congo was seen by Belgians at the time. "Herge was like a sponge," He said, " He soaked up the atmosphere and reproduced the mood of the country." 

The English edition of TinTin in the Congo carries a warning to modern readers that they may be offended by "bourgeois, paternalisitc stereotypes of Africans". Goddin suspects that French and other editions may follow suit. Legal Attempts to ban the book were rejected by a Belgian Court in 2012, but there could be more. 

by Peter Conrad The Australian June 22 2020

[Andrew999]

To some extent, History is always His-Story, interpreted to some extent by the person writing it. (No offence intended here by the way to women or those within LGBTAIQ+ who might identify in a particular way - the pun only works with His-Story, not Her-Story or whatever).

At least a good historian does try to support his story based on a balanced view of the evidence. Collect all those stories together, hopefully from many different viewpoints, and you have our cultural history - good and bad.

I've always thought we were intelligent enough to understand attitudes change over time (we don't send children up chimneys anymore) and that we could view ridiculous past attitudes with some detachment - as part of the development of ideas and civilisation.

Apparently not

But if we allow mob rule, statue-toppling, book burning, to gain momentum, won't we lose what evidence we have from the past? Won't our story be diminished not advanced?

Where does it stop? Destroy Georgian houses built on the revenues from slavery? Erase Roman ruins as they were an army of occupation? Nuke New York, the once sacred tribal land now full of the descendants of recent historical arrivals (invaders? colonists?)

Every historical artefact we have is tainted with offence - Golden Age comics show overt prejudice against black people (and aliens from other planets), patronising attitudes towards women (and children) - and as far as I can see absolutely no mention of LGBTAIQ+.

Should we burn them all - or learn from them?

I'm currently reading an old pre-war Edgar Wallace (a great adventure writer) in which one of the characters is described as a stooped Mongolian Hebrew (yeuk - it made be wince and my skin crawl, but I carried on reading because I understand that attitude was a common if disgusting attitude from that time period - and the writing was good other than that - and it's best not to think of Wallace's Sanders of the River stories (or Biggles, Haggard, Buchan, early Sexton Blake or even Cap't Hurricane!)

Do we destroy them all?

These are questions I am asking in a genuine way - I don't want to offend anyone - so what's the way forward?

[paw broon]

Well put, Andrew. 
Lots of good points and food for thought and, I hope, discussion.
As you'll know here in Scotland many people know of The Clearances:-

http://scottishhistorysociety.com/the-highland-clearances/

So, should we tear down the Duke of Sutherland's statue?  Going by what BLM seems to be about, we should.  But that just takes away a reminder of the awfulness that was perpetrated on thousands of families from people nowadays. I don't want apologies.  Just don't let this type of behaviour happen again.
When we had the comic shop in Glasgow, we were located in the Virginia Galleries.  No need to explain the reference.  Should that have existed?
Spadger's Isle in Adventure? What about burning down the DC Thomson offices in Dundee and London.  Of course not.
Same with Lees of Coatbridge with their "picaninnie" references in their ads for macaroon bars.
I've mentioned previously somewhere on this site, The Black Gang, a Bulldog Drummond novel by Sapper.  A great thriller, but with a lot of anti-semitism. So, burn all copies?  I hope not.  That was then. I/we can't change it and it's a lesson to us all not to disrespect other people, cultures, lifestyles.

[Captain Audio]

If you want to see the fur fly mention that almost every African slave was enslaved by other Africans, then sold to Arab slavers who then sold them to European slave traders.
The Somali enslaved hundreds of thousands of their neighbors, survivors of genocidal campaigns against the Bantu and others. Of course its considered racist to even mention that.

Remember the old saying "those who do not learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repeat (the course in summer school)".
Since Howard Zinn wrote his "peoples history of the United States" actual knowledge of history has fallen into the twilight zone of political correctness and revisionism.

[Andrew999]

Who is the real Rascar Capac?

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/old-mummy-linked-famous-fictional-192523654.html