Unspoken Discrimination

A lot of people don’t know about discrimination against redheads and most people do not take ginger discrimination seriously.  If you ask almost any redhead, they will tell that they were bullied in their childhood because of their hair color. The media today always portrays gingers as unapproachable or hot tempered. Ginger discrimination is most controversial because it’s not paid attention to and it happens as a form of child-on-child bullying.  On the nobullying.com site, the author states:

“One ‘reason’ for bullying, if you can call it reason, is often overlooked in social awareness programs. You may be surprised to read that the color of someone’s hair, specifically, bright red hair, can create animosity and bullying. Anyone with red hair has probably gone through this at one time or other.”  

When people are perceived as different, they often become victims of bullying.  According to an article from bbc.com, “Seeing red: Does ‘gingerism’ really exist?” reporter Emma Ailes states, “[a]ccording to the ScotlandsDNA project, only about 0.6% of the world’s population has red hair.”  Yes, gingerism does exist and it needs to end.

 

Ginger Bullying in the Media

A lot of TV show including Glee, South Park and the TV host, Patti Stanger, demonstrate this type of ginger bullying as being humorous but if you’re a redhead, it’s not.  Some real bullying incidents have even been inspired by a South Park episode called, “Ginger Kids.” This issue mostly happens with younger children and it can be harmful to the redhead’s self-esteem, self-worth and even result in physical violence.

Uniqueness

Redheads are easy victims. Gingers don’t belong in one culture or group. As a first-hand experience, all I want to do when I was younger and up until 11th grade was to change my hair so I would fit in. Ginger discrimination happens all around the world and every community. A 2014 article in The Guardian entitled, “Discrimination Against Gingers,” tracks redhead discrimination globally.  It explains that “gingerism” happens to almost every redhead, surprisingly, all around the world.  Most redheads have experienced bullying, especially during childhood.

Solutions

By raising awareness about redhead discrimination, people will realize its harmful effects.  In order to raise awareness f, I interviewed my Vice Principal, Ms. Jackie Wood. I chose to interview her because she is a redhead, like me, and she’s known for being friendly, approachable,  and even-tempered, which are contrary traits to the ginger stereotypes.

Dana (DM): Do you like your hair color?

Ms. Wood (JW): Yes.  I love being a redhead.  I am not particularly fond of any of my other physical features – my hair is my one source of pride.  My red hair is the one thing that makes me different.

DM: Did you always like your hair color?

JW: I’ve liked having red hair for about 99% of my life.

DM: Did you get bullied because of your color? If so, do you have any stories you would like to tell?

JW: There was a period of time in middle school where a handful of kids gave me a hard time about having red hair.  I got called “carrot top” or “ginger” or “little Orphan Annie.”  Some kids called me “redneck,” mistakenly thinking it was a reference to hair color.

DM: When did people stop teasing you for your hair color?

JW: The teasing only stopped because I moved out of the area and at my new school, the students did not pick on my hair color.  Looking back, one thing I think may have prevented bullying was [positive] portrayal of red hair in pop culture.  When I was younger the Little Mermaid was a huge sensation.  Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York was in fashion.  Lindsey Lohan came out with a remake of Parent Trap.  All of these people helped to make red hair not just acceptable, but desirable.    

DM: What do you wish people would have done to help stop the bullying?

JW: The bullying I experienced was not the result of neglect or indifference.  As far as I know, there were never any adults who heard the name calling.  The only thing that I think would have made a difference might have been preventative character education.  I think that if the other kids were more aware of the effects of their words, there might have been less name calling.   

Final Reflection

If you’re a parent of a redheaded child, you can help stop the bullying by asking your child or children about what is happening to them at school and discuss the problem with the school fi they are being bullied. People are more likely to help if you point out the problem. People are starting to raise awareness about the issue. A Ginger Convention was even started in Ireland in 2010.  An article in the Chicago Tribune explains that many redheads are starting to embrace their uniqueness. Many people still don’t know about gingerism and therefore, they don’t take it seriously. There are networks like ABC, BBC and other news reports that have raised more awareness.  With more information spreading, we can reduce the incidence of ginger discrimination.