If anyone addresses me by the colour of my hair again, I may lose it. What is it with people?
Why is it considered acceptable to discriminate against ginger people, when its not ok to do similar for different religions or races? Why is hair colour exempt? Its ridiculous!
People might think its only harmless fun, but sometimes it can be vicious. When I was in school I got bullied, for various things, but among them was being ginger. People dont seem to grasp that simply using the word 'ginger' with hard 'G's can bring it all back in moments, the horrible things people can say.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6725653.stm
Some people object strongly whenever anyone tries to compare prejudice against redheads with racism, but I'm not sure. True, we've never (to my knowledge) been enslaved for being ginger, but that doesnt generally happen much anymore anyway. I've been called 'GinGer' with such hatred in the past that it almost equals how I imagine I'd feel if I was black and someone used a racist term against me.
Ive also been told that in history people have been killed for being ginger, because people thought it meant they were of the devil. I'm not sure I'd dare go to some African countries because I'm told people there think redheads are witches, and may hurt them.
There are some real morons in this country. I was walking back from the centre of town yesterday, through Christs Pieces, when I heard someone behind me yelling; "Hey, ginger! Are you the ginger we're looking for?.......... Hey Ginger girl! Are you the ginger we're looking for?.... Oi Ginger!..."
I pretended I hadnt heard them and just walked on, because in my experience rising to them only makes things worse. I dont want to know why they were looking for a 'ginger', and I have no idea what they'd have said to me had I actually responded. I didnt think it was worth the risk.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/3233392.stm
Anyway. There's some of my rantings. Enjoy!
4 comments:
Hi, I found your post interesting but I think I disagree with the main thrust of your argument.
You asked why it is acceptable for people to discriminate based upon hair color, but not upon many other things. My angle would be that this is something to be embraced, and it is sad that the majority of discrimination (racial, etc.) is given weight, as this, I feel, is what allows it to retain its power to hurt.
Imagine for a second that all discrimination was as absurd as "gingerism" (for want of a better word.) People with ginger hair (for the most part) can disregard these insults about their hair color because we all see these attacks for what they are: silly.
On the other hand, racism (and many other -isms you care to think of), which to my mind are extremely silly (seriously, why should you be anything but proud of who you are? And why should a thing as absurd as your skin color be something that people can hurt you with?) are treated as very serious, and thus given credibility to be used further to insult. They are given their power to hurt because we take them seriously.
To compare, the reason we don't see discrimination based on, say, eye color is that the person doing the insulting would look like a fool. On the other hand, unfortunately, people have taken insults based on hair color to heart, thus those doing the insulting get credibility for their insults, and the insults themselves have more weight. It's a vicious cycle.
So instead, suppose that we treated all racial/sexual/etc./etc. insults the same way we treat gingerism (or eye-color-ism!) Well then surely they lose their status? If, suddenly, racists find that their power has been taken from them, because rather than getting "attention" for making racist remarks (attention in the sense that brats in classrooms crave attention) they are laughed at by the very people they had intended to hurt (as well as the rest of society) then racism loses a great deal of its power -- reduced to a remark as trivial and plainly absurd as "haha, you have blue eyes!"
See what I mean? Your reaction is what gives "gingerism" its credibility in the first place. This very post is a part of this vicious cycle.
As regards to your school experiences, I think pretty much anyone will tell you just how insecure we all were as children, and sadly many dealt with it by externalizing their insecurities, trying to knock others down to break their fall and using anything they could to use as an insult. Now that we're adults we can see through this of course, though I guess there's always that segment of society that never grows up.
You also make some interesting points, it is ridiculous, as all prejudice is.
As I said before, people who have prejudices like that *are* morons, and I do my best not to take what they say to heart, but what does upset me is that society in general gives these morons a license to express these views against ginger haired people, and even have a little chuckle along with them, when to do the same for racist views is seen as completely unacceptable. It implies that the victims of those prejudices have a right to be upset, but that redheads do not... because its 'all in fun'.
Well I can vouch that a lot of what I have come across is not in fun, it is truly hateful, and I dont see why I should have to grin and bear it.
It would be great if everybody could just turn around one day and start laughing at the prejudiced, but I'm not convinced thats likely to happen soon.
Hi
I think I also have to disagree, although I do see your point.
What you describe is not discrimination on a par with what goes on with different sexes or races.
With racism or sexism, you find people with an inbuilt negative belief about women or nonwhites. These are manifest in more ways than being vocalised. So women may be denied promotions and blacks may be refused service in a restaurant. Obviously they get much more severe than that as well, and of course there's the history.
I didn't know about red haired people being called children of the devil and certainly if they are killed or ostracised for having red hair than I would put that on a par with racism and sexism.
But I don't really think that today you would find yourself highly disadvantaged in the workplace or the political system because of your hair colour, whereas race and gender can still be a big stumbling block in the wider world - not just the playground. This is why I think racist and sexist taunts are so frowned upon - because of what they can potentially grow into. So in one respect I also have to disagree with the first commenter since I don't think here it is a case of 'giving weight' to the insults. We have to show from an early age that this is entirely unacceptable.
Obviously ALL bullying is entirely unacceptable but I suppose in an imperfect world we have to focus on eliminating the parts which can be the most damaging and I'd have to agree that these are the racist and sexist taunts. Especially racist - considering the difficulty many Muslims, Arabs, Pakistanis (really, I think, anyone who looks like they might be from the Middle East) are already having thanks to the behaviour of extremists in their name.
Apart from some severe and honestly quite bizarre cases, I would say that any 'gingerism' (as you put it) is a type of bullying that would occur regardless - it's simply that the bully has seized on the most notable feature that is different from them.
You yourself mention that you were bullied for things other than being ginger - so I don't think in your case the bullies were being 'gingerist' since they clearly would have picked on you anyway - it's just that your hair gave them a bit of extra ammuniton because it was so different.
In my opinion it's just an offshoot of the old reliable make-fun-of-the-unfamiliar. And I guess redheads are just having it a bit worse at the moment. You've got to be careful about lumping every 'ginger' comment into the same category - obviously some are vicious and hateful - but I think that the perpetrators should be punished for being vicious and hateful rather than being 'gingerist' since I doubt most of them were not actually going around with an inbuilt prejudice against redheads, but just saw something a little different and went for it. But other comments truly are just in fun - I saw an excellent standup comedy routine on just this subject - and I think in those cases we have to remember that it's not exclusively redheads being focused on - all sorts of different groups of people will probably get that sort of thing at one point or another in their lives.
Having said all that, some people are just tossers.
Hi,
I am a redhead and have always been. I cannot tell you how many times a day I hear shit about my hair. I have dyed it so much just to stop the crap. In school, i honestly felt as if it was better than it is now, all kids were picked on for something. Kids are kids, but adults are far worse. Now, new names have come out. Fire crotch, or the most used one 'ranger'. I sat in a cinema a few weeks ago that was packed full, and the moment a red haired child came on screen, there was an overpowering yelling from the audience "Ranger!!!". That night I cried myself to sleep and decided to dye my hair. That one was used on the radio not long ago by some horrible monster in a very very negative and vicious way as well. I went home and cried after that too. They're currently showing an ad on television for law and order, in which the new recruit (a redhead) is called fire crotch. I was so angry and annoyed and tried to find something, anything on the internet, but it all ended in tears. Everytime we hear about Lindsay Lohan, they have to say 'fire crotch'. I feel like shit about myself, and I used to think my hair was unique and beautiful. The staring, the derogatory names, it all has to stop. And more than that - I believe it is racism, and on par with sexism, as I feel discriminated against in job interviews and general everyday life. I have felt so bad I have wanted to be dead. So, do not tell me it isn't something serious - it is. A man was stabbed in the back for having red hair, and this is in the wikipedia article. I thought that being part of the western world, and therefore civilized, this wouldn't, couldn't, be allowed to continue. I'm sick of it. And oh, we have been persecuted. Burried alive or burned to death by egyptians is the one that comes most to mind. I hope if others are out there and feel like me that they see this blog, and know that they are't alone.
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