Sorry Darling, Charlie Hebdo Isn’t Racist.

Your heart was in the right place though… I think?

There have been, coming out here and there in the American press (and in others, I would guess, though I can’t be bothered to learn the languages yet) increasing reports that the recently struck satirical mag Charlie Hebdo was just as racist and bigoted as the ignorant fringes of French society. That said, being fortunately as well versed myself in the native tongue as any Parisian could hope to be, I should add that those allegations are untrue. In fact, the paper’s editorial line was very much against such cheap thinking, following in the commendable footsteps of the European far-left (albeit with a bit more humor) – as I’ve said before here.

Their first Mohammed depiction, published in 2005 in support of the Danish cartoons. He says: “It’s tough to be loved by idiots…”

It would seem the journalists concerned have not been left unaffected by the recent commotion, making the mistake of confusing ridicule of religion with racism. Had they done their research in any serious way, they would’ve realized that Charlie Hebdo never once incited hatred and violence along racial (and religious, for that matter) lines. That the cartoons were tasteless is irrelevant, because all they did was insult the supposedly sacred tenets and figures of (all) religions, merely mocking them as the silly little things they are. To fail to realize that such actions are in no way discriminatory (let alone racist) is simply to deny the right of every man to challenge, criticize the beliefs of another.

On the charge that the drawings themselves are racist, it should be noted that the few caricatures depicting Muslims do not insult them for their origins, looks, or any of the usual racial angles of attack – they aren’t even physically portrayed as different, a tactic commonly used in real racist cartoons to imply inferiority.

More importantly, perhaps, it would be wise to remember that while it is not illegal to insult faiths (of any kind) in France, the general encouragement of hatred of others based on their religion or ‘race’ – an archaic concept though it may be – is. Charlie Hebdo never did those things, though it repeatedly criticized all beliefs held sacred, never backing down under threat of violence. Those actions should be praised, not diminished and likened to those of a bigot.