Whole plots rebut prejudice; think of The Castafiore Emerald, in which Captain Haddock invites downtrodden Gypsies to park on his property, and everyone but him and Tintin assume they’re jewel thieves.

When my son and I read the Tintin books together, we pause to consider & discuss various old-fashioned assumptions and illustrations — including their drawings of black people. We talk about how strange and offensive they are to our eyes, yet they were borne of a different age. We also discuss the very positive message of Tintin’s stories, and his globe-trotting embrace of different peoples.

second – in putting it under lock and key they have opened the door for EVERY book to be available by appointment only which defeats the purpose of a library. You can’t say oh we will do that for one and not for others. It’s hypocritical.

3. there will always, always be racism and prejudice. And hiding away “offensive” literature [to whom I add, because I cite the eg of Enid Blyton's golliwogs and the complaints are from white people not blacks or asians by the way] says that we are in fact intolerant and racist because we don’t have the guts to deal with such issues.