The article linked to in the title of this post suggests the publisher will be called to give testimony on May 12, so perhaps reports that a decision would be made by the ruling body to ban Tin Tin in the Congo, which depicts Africans in very poor light, were premature. I'm trying to follow the story as best I can and have already weighed in on my support for keeping the texts available for anyone who chooses to read them.
Perhaps I'm getting more conservative in my old age, having seen my son move all four of his appendages in an ultrasound taken when he was only 2 months developed; having seen leftists with whom I used to identify reveal as much of a fascism as those on the far right; having seen those who espouse equal rights seem to really just want to replace the current power structures' personnel with people of their own best liking, focusing on the race or gender or sexuality of the participants rather than really changing the systems in and of themselves; having lived in a city where I'm a minority but still regarded as a majority figure; and, most recently, having seen folks unable to figure out what "illegal" means.
But, I feel that banning texts, language, etc. with unfortunate imagery and connotations from the past serves a terrible ironic purpose. If we make sure no one can experience these things, we may forget they ever existed, and then -- just like every generation of teenagers thinks they're the first to discover kinky sex -- we'll figure that if there's no evidence, it didn't really happen, stop thinking about it all together, or worse, since it hasn't really happened, begin to think that perhaps it's about time we started to put our stamp on it.
What's the old adage: Study history so it doesn't repeat itself? While I don't believe there's as much wisdom in that as there should be, as evidenced by human society's proclivity for doing the same stupid shit over and over again for thousands of years, I believe there is more wisdom in the phrase "censor your dirty realities and be unprepared when you begin to relive them."
UPDATE: Tom Spurgeon found more news on this case.
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