Racism

**Racism** is the ideology that an ethnic or cultural group is less deserving of respect or kindness than other groups. Racist actions range from mocking remarks about others' cultural experiences, to inflicting outright violence upon individuals from a targeted group. Within *The Adventures of Tintin* fandom, racism is incurred when fans interpret the characters or stories in a context meant to demean other cultures.

## Origin

Racism itself is a storied, worldwide phenomenon, but within the context of *Tintin*, racism became present in early albums out of Hergé's lack of understanding of how seriously certain imagery and sentiments could be interpreted, both by aggressors and by cultures affected by this imagery. For example, the presence of Chinese torturers in *Tintin in the Land of the Soviets* came from Hergé adapting a visual stereotype that was common in Europe around the late 1920s. It was only after meeting Zhang Chongren that Hergé learned how inaccurate his portrayal had been.

Another example is with the album *Tintin in the Congo*. Its story follows Tintin going to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which at the time was being colonized by the Belgian government. The album's content portrays the Congo as being full of good-natured but primitive peoples who needed Europeans to help "civilize" them; this parrots the pro-colonization sentiments of 1930s Belgium, and while Hergé is still on the hook for creating this story, it is also a product of his environment, both of 1930s Europe and of conservative Catholic magazine *Le Petit Vingtieme*. This album has long been a polarizing subject among *Tintin* fans, with most opting to ignore its existence, and a smaller percentage of fans embracing the album because it portrays their own feelings towards African peoples.

Racism can be invoked to a much lesser degree when discussing the "whiteness" of Tintin and others in the main cast. Most often, this is considered "punching up", wherein jokes about a culture with more societal rights and/or power does not contribute to any real-world harm. Teasing about Tintin's White identity does not generally cross the line, and can be humorous or relatable for some. However, claiming Tintin's ethnicity makes him inherently more dangerous or barbaric than other cultures *is* racist; it reduces him to a negative entity based on culture alone, disregarding his actions and personality in canon, and emboldens some White people who may want a reason to act dangerous or cruel. The nuances of racism are complicated, and prone to frequent debates, but the *Tintin* fandom - much like Hergé - generally approaches other cultures with good intentions.

## Intentional

One phenomenon within the *Tintin* fandom is the editing of Hergé's canon art to create pastiches with hateful intent. Some of these creations are multi-page comics, while others are just speculative covers. The use of this canon art often disregards the evolution of Hergé's personal opinions and the sentiments expressed in his later *Tintin* comics, with inflammatory panels from *Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in America,* etc. mixed with later artwork.

In the 2010s, the Anglophone Tintin fandom, primarily on Tumblr and Twitter, experienced a minor panic when users began unknowingly sharing inflammatory speculative covers. One such example was the "Tintin à Paris" (en: Tintin in Paris) cover, which depicts Tintin running through the streets of Morocco in *Crab with the Golden Claws*; while this particular image looked harmless, the cover portrayed a Francophone white supremacist belief that immigrants and refugees were turning the streets of France into "uncivilized" Middle Eastern market streets. A less subtle speculative cover was "Le Congo chez Tintin" (en: The Congo in Tintin), which depicted a real life photograph of African migrants on a makeshift raft in the middle of the ocean, with the implication that these migrants were on their way to "invade" the *Tintin* world of Europe.

Specific characters are also frequently used to represent entire cultures. For example, Mr. Bohlwinkel from *The Shooting Star* will appear in racist pastiches as a representative of Jewish peoples. The character was based on 1940s European visual stereotypes, thus Bohlwinkel's entire design is inflammatory; he may outright state something hateful or stereotypical, or his role in the story will immediately imply something hateful to the viewer (i.e. depicting him as a bank manager, embodying a stereotype claiming Jewish peoples control world finances).

In the early periods of the COVID-19 pandemic, images from *The Blue Lotus* were appropriated to create Sinophobic propaganda either mocking Chinese people for succumbing to the virus, or accusing China of bringing the virus to the rest of the world. Most notably, images of Mitsuhirato injecting Tintin with (what he assumes is) the Madness Poison were altered to be about Tintin receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Mitsuhirato was also presented as a representative of Chinese peoples, in spite of the character being Japanese, because his canon design features visual traits that are also used to hatefully depict Chinese peoples. Many unknowing users shared these images as commentary on the world's rush to exterminate COVID-19, in spite of these same images' blatant hateful intent.

## Accidental

Accidental racism is when fandom contributors portray a character or situation in a stereotypical manner, not out of targeted hatred, but out of naivety. Characters may be portrayed as tropes that the fan was not aware were inflammatory stereotypes. For example, General Alcazar has been portrayed by fans as irrationally, nonstrategically violent or, inversely, as a "spicy Latino lover", both of these being stereotypes about Latin people used in North American media. A fan may apply these tropes to Alcazar for a short gag comic or a fan fiction, not out of targeted hatred, but just because it is a trope familiar to the fan. Fortunately, the global reach of *The Adventures of Tintin* comics means there are fans from any number of cultures around the world, meaning there are plenty of opportunities for fans to collaborate and know what not to do, much like the collaboration between Hergé and Zhang Chongren.