Gingerism
On Glenalmond Road some pupils from our local secondary school were passing by also on their way home. They were younger pupils - probably from Y7 or Y8. There were three boys and two girls. One of the girls had red hair - not bright ginger but a colour that contained some honey and copper tinges too. I suppose that some might refer to her hair colour as "strawberry blonde".
There was some playful after-school banter going on between the kids. Then one of the boys called ahead to the strawberry blonde girl that was she was ginger-haired. "Ginge!" he called and "Ginger!" The girl yelled back that she was most definitely "not ginger". On the surface at least, she took the taunting in her stride. I imagine that it was not the first time that she had had to deal with gingerist banter.
Back in 2009, I blogged about another example of gingerism. It concerned Christmas cards being sold in "Tesco" supermarkets that bore the very unfunny legend, "Santa loves all kids. Even GINGER ones" followed by a picture of a little boy with red hair sitting on Santa's knee. Go here.
In that blogpost I alluded to my past observations of the treatment that ginger-haired schoolchildren frequently have to suffer in secondary schools. Why should they have to tough it out?
Around 10% of people in both Ireland and Scotland have red hair. The figure is much lower in other European countries, including England. Teasing red haired people is simply not nice and shows a kind of dismissal or disrespect that is invariably very hurtful. In that sense, gingerism belongs in the same bag as sexism, racism and disablism and I mean this most sincerely.
Historically, many people with red hair have even lost their first names - replaced by the label - "Ginger". This does not happen to folks with brown or black hair.
Take the superstar drummer of the progressive rock band Cream for example. Everybody knew him as Ginger Baker but how many were aware that his real name was Peter - yes - Peter Baker? He wasn't "Ginger" at all. The unimaginative nickname was foisted upon him and it became inescapable though he did not choose it and he did not like it.
So my Christmas message to the world is STOP GINGERISM! Treating other people as your equals includes refusing to mock or perhaps even mention the natural colour of someone else's hair.
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/WQJOtYv
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