Dandy faces race probe into 1939 annual featuring n-word

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The 1939 Dandy annual is the subject of a race investigation

Race watchdogs have launched a probe into a relaunched 1939 Dandy annual after claims it uses racist and inflammatory language.

The children's annual, which has been reprinted for the Christmas market, has been branded racist for using the word 'nigger.'

In the 1939 comic strip, Smarty Grandpa, the word is used four times by characters during the course of single-page story.

Smarty Grandpa says he is going to listen to the 'nigger minstrels' but finds his face blackened when a bag of soot he is holding bursts.

As Grandpa heads for the sea to wash the soot from his face, an old lady says: 'Poor old nigger minstrel. Here's a sixpence for you but your show isn't very good.'

Grandpa then thinks: 'That lady thinks I'm a nigger. That gives me an idea' before he goes to help two musicians whose own show has flopped saying: 'Hi folks, help the nigger minstrels.'

The Dandy - the world's longest-running comic which was launched in 1937 - has been branded racist for using of the word.

Winston Walker, 42, a Jamaican business student, said: 'It's extremely derogatory to black people. Any decent person would be disgusted by the terms used.'

'There is no doubt in my mind the reprint should have been edited. My partner is white and she was also thoroughly disgusted when she read it.'

Philip Ledbury, a black businessman, said: 'It reinforces old negative views of black people and should have been edited for the 21st century.

'Reproducing dreadful racial stereotypes would not be accepted among Jews, Indians, Pakistanis or any other ethnic minority and neither should this.'

Last night the Campaign Against Political Correctness said the reproduction of a term used in a bygone age did not reinforce prejudice.

John Midgley said: 'Whilst language does evolve and change over time the fact that you can purchase these books and annuals in antique bookshops and over the internet makes these steps completely unnecessary.

'The rewriting of history and old books is all part and parcel of the current tide of political correctness in this country.'

Comic collector Josh Lennon said: 'Shakespeare contains negative portrayals of Jews and blacks but no-one is going to insist his material is rewritten. I think adult collectors, which is the market this annual is aimed at, will understand the historical context.'

Publishers Aurum have produced thousands of copies of the book for the seasonal market priced at £16.99 each.

Some book shops are not stocking the annual in the children's department and are advising buyers the book contains sensitive material.

The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has launched an investigation into the annual after a series of complaints.

A spokeswoman for the CRE said: 'We will look at the book and make a decision on whether it is inflammatory.'

But the publishers are unrepentant over reissusing the annual saying times had obviously changed since those terms were used and the annual should be judged in its historical context.

Bill McCreadie, managing director of Aurum Press, which publishes the book in a joint venture with DC Thomson, said: 'The annual is a piece of nostalgia and is certainly not aimed at children.

'It should be seen and judged on the standards of the time and while things may move on it would be wrong to change it as it is an exact facsimile copy.'

Many novels using the word, including the Nigger of Narcissus by Joseph Conrad, are still published unabridged.

Priced at 2p, the first issue of the Dandy came out on December 4 1937 introducing the British public to characters such as Desperate Dan, Korky the Cat and Keyhole Kate.

It made it into the record books as the world's longest-running comic when its 3,007th edition rolled off the presses in July, 1999.

Earlier this year a surviving first issue of Dandy with a free gift of a tin whistle recently sold for a recordbreaking £20,000.

Weekly sales have dropped, however, from two million in the 1950s to over 400,000 today though its Christmas annuals remain especially popular among young and old.

 

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