Moomin character removed from Brooklyn library exhibition after racism concern
A Moomin scholar finds the move “absurd”, arguing that the character Stinky is far from racist and the decision likely reflects a lack of familiarity with the Moomin stories.
Yle News 1.8. 16:34 A Moomin character has been dropped from a major exhibition at Brooklyn Public Library in New York after one of the institution’s supporters raised concerns that the character might be perceived as racist.
“One of their supporters had thought Stinky could be seen as a racist symbol,” said Roleff Kråkström, CEO of Moomin Characters, the company that manages the rights to Tove Jansson’s beloved Moomin universe.
The exhibition, which has drawn a young audience over the summer, features illustrations of Moominvalley characters and details about Jansson’s life and work. But Stinky — known in Finnish as Haisuli — was removed from some of the large mural-style displays in the library, although he still appears in the original books on show.
Kråkström told Yle he was informed of the decision via a short email from the library and responded with understanding.
“We replied in a few lines and said it’s fine. We see this as a healthy societal discussion. If such a change is requested, we have no objection,” he said.
He noted this is the first time in 80 years that the character has drawn such criticism.
“Tove Jansson is widely seen as a champion of tolerance, radical acceptance, and inclusivity. But I greatly respect the American sensitivity around these types of conversations,” he said.
The decision was first reported by Finland’s Swedish-language Hufvudstadsbladet newspaper.
I recognize Moomin has international appeal, but this is a story out of Brooklyn and as it’s internal US News, it doesn’t go in World.
Said character:
Honestly it’s just a fluffy black puff, there’s nothing racist about it originally, it’s american and their history.
They’ll be coming after the Ghibli Soot Sprites next.
Who “they”??
There was not a single complaint. Read the article, or at least the post body.
“They” being the people concerned that others will find the character racist. Did you even read the article, bro?
So a supporter “voicing concerns” is “coming after” the thing they’re supporting? Yeah I don’t think so.
Already happened once!
Yup, there’s literally no connotations such as what the literal Jim Crows had in Disney films.
There’s no implication or connotation or anything of the sort.
If anything I think it’s at most referring to like bearded drunken Finns, Stinky being sort of 100% beard and he’s not exactly evil but he is sort of self-centered and very moody.
But yeah there’s absolutely nothing racist about him.
If you look at Stinky and think he is meant as a racist stereotype because he is black colored: You’re the racist and you’re just projecting.
Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but: We should pump the brakes a little on this culture war narrative and recognize that there was no actual complaint, nor did anyone say the character is a racist caricature.
What deserves scrutiny is who made the decision to remove the character in preemptive compliance. Clearly there were other options on the table.
And they didn’t say anyone made an actual complaint. Did you even read their comment?
So what’s the point of that comment then lmao. Can you argue in good faith please
The irony of that last statement lmao
It’s not that surprising. America doesn’t have a cultural history with Moomin. It blew my mind to find out how popular the IP is in the rest of the world.
It’s a shame though because I would have loved Moomin and Asterix the Gaul growing up in Texas.
The “Moomin Boom” only really began in the 90’s although the original characters are from like the 1930’s and the author died in 2001.
So only later in her life was it really more commercialised. The original art being rather political. She drew lots criticising Hitler and Stalin among others.
There’s also comic strips of the Moomins doing drugs etc.
But I didn’t know any of that until later in my life. I still reaaaally vividly remember how epic it was when my dad took me to see “Muumipeikko ja pyrstötähti” — “Comet in Moominland”, although that’s a poor translation imo, the direct being “Moomintroll and the tailed star” where “Moomintroll” is not just a description but the main character, who is named Muumipeikko. So like a Finnish person named Finn, essentially. And “tailed star” is just what comets are called in Finnish “pyrstö” = tail (but like that of a fish, not a cat’s tail, not a mammalian whisky tail) and “tähti” = star.
I was very much into moomins as a kid and the themepark is kinda nearby, just 30km from where we lived. Later in life dad actually drove a sort of road-train for them (which takes customers from the parkin lot to the park or the hotel).
But as a kid apparently I got insanely scared in some part of the theme park and just like ran out of a maze, but actually went below a fence, where a kid could fit. And my god mother who was supposed to take me through it came out looking rather scared when I was already standing with my mom. She looked kinda elated when she saw me. Or I may be imagining that I remember that idk, mom having told me the story so many times.
You guys didn’t have Asterix and Obelix either? Oh man.
People who find this kind of stuff racist are the most racist. Who the fuck see a dark blob and think “this has to be a black person”??
Overly sensitive and guilt-ridden subconsciously racist white Americans?
Idk
How did you post this without even reading the brief? 🤦🏼♀️
That’s the first paragraph I posted. One out of the three that is in the article.
Or depending how you define “paragraph”, I posted all the paragraphs under the first subheading, which is one out of three in the article.
But either way you look at it, I didn’t copy the entire article. At most 1/3 of it. And it’s from Yleisradio Finland, so there’s no need to worry about copyright, really. It’s the Finnish equivalent to BBC, basically, and they’re not as fussy about copyright as profit-mongering entities. Still, I did follow their rules while posting.
This question is answered in the article: No one.
Also “They’re the real racists!” is a very narrow-minded if not bad-faith take on institutionalized racism, the history of racial caricatures, and people who may be more sensitive to racial stereotypes than yourself.
Uhhh actually no. Show me in the article the specific quote where they say “no one believe the character is racist”.
Don’t be a troll. The reason is stated clearly in the second sentence of the article.
Moomin character has been dropped from a major exhibition at Brooklyn Public Library in New York after one of the institution’s supporters raised concerns that the character might be perceived as racist.
“One of their supporters had thought Stinky could be seen as a racist symbol,” said Roleff Kråkström, CEO of Moomin Characters, the company that manages the rights to Tove Jansson’s beloved Moomin universe.
Them:
Who the fuck see a dark blob and think “this has to be a black person”??
You:
No one
And you cite the article to back that up, and yet nowhere in your quote does it say that no one sees it and thinks “this has to be a black person”.
Curious… 🧐🤔🤨
a win for censorship, a loss for education.
The hell is a Moomin?
Basically the Finnish/Nordic equivalent of Mickey Mouse.
But instead of the writer being a racist white guy, it was a radical leftist lesbian who openly criticised Hitler and Stalin as the ridiculous little men they were.
https://www.huckmag.com/article/how-the-moomins-became-an-anti-fascist-symbol
Nowadays it’s become a banal family thing and some criticise it as it leaves out the very clear political messaging of the early comics.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomins
Did anyone notice how this story doesn’t involve a single person calling this character a racist caricature?
Wokeness is fine, correcting things is fine.
But Stinky just has zero racist connotations. Especially when you take into account the author’s general intent.
Yeah. Who said otherwise? I feel like I’m going crazy here, because the article you posted makes no mention of anyone that did.
The person who complained to the Brooklyn Library, obviously? Just like the article mentions, I too doubt that they’ve ever actually looked into the work. They link to this in the article, maybe look at that for more info?
They literally didn’t.
“One of their supporters had thought Stinky could be seen as a racist symbol”
This is a hypothetical. Nobody mentioned in the article holds that position. This person did not complain about the character. They raised concerns as a supporter that they thought someone else might complain in the future.
But everyone here is upset at a hypothetical person filing a hypothetical complaint, rather than the real person that made the decision to remove the character outright, instead of putting in the work to address the supporter’s concern in more constructive ways.
Well if one of the had thought it, and we’re yet to discover telepathy, it’d make sense to assume she had told someone about her thoughts.
What’s your assumption? That this is entirely made up? Based on nothing?
I fail to see your motivation.
What? I literally don’t get what you’re trying to say about telepathy.
I’m not assuming anything, I’m directly citing the article you posted. Your point rests entirely on an assumption that is already disproven in the article itself.
You know I didn’t write the article, right?
And yet the concern that it might be seen as racist was taken seriously enough for the removal to go through.
So why is everyone discussing this as if there was an external complaint?
The issue here seems to be how lazily this was handled by the organization.
But many comments here are jumping to conclusions and fighting windmills instead.
Imagine being this tediously pedantic.
This isn’t about a technicality.
The widespread narrative about “the left” or “woke mobs” going around calling everything racist under the sun is one of the most successful bits of right-wing culture war propaganda. Which people in this thread are unintentionally spreading as they jump on the chance to dunk on those ignorant fools (that in many cases such as this one don’t even exist).
lol. ITT: OP looks for any excuse to call Americans racist.
Sure yeah, make it about America. It’s not as if it gets enough attention.
