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Kick a ginger day.

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vison
Post subject: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Sun 23 Nov , 2008 7:35 pm
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So, what do you guys think of this?

My 13 year old grandson admitted he "kicked a ginger" on Thursday. I think this has earned him a week of no TV at all. He might NOW understand what a stupid, cruel thing it was but what gets me is, why didn't he think of it before? And, needless to say, he was not by any means alone. He goes to a very strict private school and yet I have had no word from the school about this - and apparently there were a number of ginger kids who got "kicked", either physically or emotionally.

Here's one news story.

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Sun 23 Nov , 2008 9:17 pm
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:bawl:

What happened to the good, old days when I just got verbally abused for having red hair?

I think a week without TV sounds fair, but I'm sure he understands what a stupid thing he did. I heard about this with Jews or something, which is terrible, too.

(I did go :scratch: when the lady in the article said kicking a redheaded person was "racist." Anti-Viking? or what?)


Lali

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Crucifer
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Sun 23 Nov , 2008 9:20 pm
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It's terrible!

A few friends and I are panning on getting enough signatures to start a red headed society in college. :D (Seriously, us three redheads are the only three who contribute in English tutorials. We're just better than normal people. :blackeye: )

But seriously, why are gingers so abused? What's so different about us than blondes or brunettes?

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Sun 23 Nov , 2008 9:41 pm
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Quote:
What's so different about us than blondes or brunettes?
http://www.asahq.org/news/redheads.htm" target="_blank We require more anaesthesia.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/s ... /5617/245a" target="_blank We ginger women can stand more pain and pressure than others.

http://www.healthanddiets.com/article24.html" target="_blank We are more resistant to rickets and tuberculosis. (And more susceptible to skin cancer.)

Shall I go on? :D

Lali

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elfshadow
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Sun 23 Nov , 2008 9:43 pm
Kill the headlights and put it in neutral
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I guess this is what happens when people start taking South Park seriously. :scratch: :(


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Holbytla
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Sun 23 Nov , 2008 10:18 pm
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I had no idea what a ginger was. I still have no idea why people with red hair are called gingers. Yes I watch SouthPark at times (see avatar). I feel out of touch.

Yet I see that kids haven't changed much over time. This is more immaturity than anything else. And a few knuckleheads thrown in for good measure I am sure.

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Impenitent
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 12:12 am
Try to stay perky
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Not racism, just a broader form of bigotry - not so different from focussing on a difference in skin colour, or a difference in faith.

Vison, have you heard of the Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes exercise? http://www.janeelliott.com/" target="_blank

The material may help you in helping your grandson understand difference and prejudice in a whole new way! (Lali, you may find it helpful too, as a homeschooling mum - it's a very powerful way of teaching/learning about the injustice of bigotry and its impact).

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Estel
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 2:43 pm
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I had never come across the word ginger, let alone the constant teasing of redheaded people until I went over to the UK. Heck, when I was in high school I dyed my hair red and kept it that way for about four years. It was considered desirable. Over here I met Steve's daughter and she dyes her hair constantly because it naturally has red tones and she doesn't want to deal with all the bullshit. The amount of mocking of redheaded people in the UK is really really really stupid and I'm sad and disappointed to hear that it's moved across the pond as well.


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Dave_LF
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 3:07 pm
You are hearing me talk
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I have never in my entire life until this moment encountered the idea that redheads should be singled out for teasing, or even treated as a group. :scratch:


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ToshoftheWuffingas
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 5:44 pm
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I'll echo all the contempt and incomprehension at one more silly school excuse for bullying. I believe it must have originated here in the UK and I feel ashamed. I can only credit it to a decision to pick something equally as irrational and meaningless as colour or social group to act the bigot over. It didn't exist when I was young.
For those who follow such matters the fashion is to pronounce ginger with a hard 'g' as in 'give' and to rhyme it with 'finger'
*sigh*

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vison
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 6:01 pm
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Tay and I had a long chat on the topic and he's as puzzled by my outrage as I am by his assumption that it was "ok".

"I know the kid," he says. "He's a friend of mine. He didn't care, he thought it was funny."

I dunno. Maybe the kicked kid did think it was funny, maybe not. I don't honestly think it's some kind of "bigotry", just a stupid idea that some kid had, based on South Park. It could just as easily have been "kick a curly haired kid" or "kick a kid with a blue shirt on". Stupid and wrong, but just stupid and wrong in a kid way.

Until this South Park/kick a ginger thing, I had never heard of the kind of feeling about redheads that Tosh and Estel are talking about.

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Crucifer
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 6:11 pm
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The ginger rhyming with finger thing comes from combining the word ginger with the word 'minger', meaning 'fuck ugly'. :roll:

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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 6:15 pm
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I had heard about Ginger Kids before south park. I knew that Ginger meant Red-haired and freckled. I guess growing up being called Ginger, not because of red hair but because of a nickname, I kind of had known about it early on. I did have freckles so there were times that I was told if I had red hair I'd be Ginger. Something I didn't understand, because as a kid I was Ginger.

Anyway it did not used to be a 'bad' thing to be Ginger, it's like being called toe-headed. I don't know when it became ok to make fun of red heads and being ginger.

I always associated it with red hair, which is one of my favorites I must say. I have always thought that blowing in the wind with the sun light catching it is :love: :love: I tried for years to die my hair that certain natural red and failed to ever reach my goal. In fact there is a lady I work with who has long curly red hair. And I am totally jealous of her hair.

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Crucifer
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 6:21 pm
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I love being a redhead. People who don't like redheads are jealous. :devil:

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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 6:22 pm
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Yes we are.

But I will always be Ginger. :P

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vison
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 6:33 pm
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When I was younger all the guyz were h0tt for Ginger on Gilligan's Island.

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 9:02 pm
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I got made fun of for my red hair a lot when I was growing up. (The freckles and, from 3rd grade on, the glasses didn't help either.)

I didn't realize it was a bigger deal in the UK. :(

No one that I know of around here knows that ginger is a British term for redhead. (In fact, I probably learned it from you all a long time ago.)

Impy, I have seen that exercise in action before.


Lali

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ToshoftheWuffingas
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 10:16 pm
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No it's not what I'd call a big deal here. It's a casual reason for schoolage bullying just as wearing glasses or having anything else that stands out is. It is relatively recent, say in the last 20 years. As you would expect it is commonest among the ignorant (at all educational levels).
Vison, I wouldn't discount your grandson's version. Some rough stuff among boys is accepted fairly happily and isn't necessarily bullying. And then again it might be. The essence of bullying is inequality. If the red headed lad can look out for himself it is far less harmful. Not that your grandson couldn't do with some extra instruction in human relationships. :) I feel sure you are up to the job. :D If he's one of your grandson's friends does he ever visit your house? It might give you the chance to dig a bit.

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MariaHobbit
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Mon 24 Nov , 2008 10:36 pm
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wikipedia wrote:
Montague Summers, in his translation of the Malleus Maleficarum,[47] notes that red hair and green eyes were thought to be the sign of a witch, a werewolf or a vampire during the Middle Ages;

“ Those whose hair is red, of a certain peculiar shade, are unmistakably vampires. It is significant that in ancient Egypt, as Manetho tells us, human sacrifices were offered at the grave of Osiris, and the victims were red-haired men who were burned, their ashes being scattered far and wide by winnowing-fans. It is held by some authorities that this was done to fertilize the fields and produce a bounteous harvest, red-hair symbolizing the golden wealth of the corn. But these men were called Typhonians, and were representatives not of Osiris but of his evil rival Typhon, whose hair was red. "
Kill off enough bearers of a gene that produces red hair, and the trait becomes rare- and you can see the echos of the attitude long after such beliefs are no longer given official sanction. Left handedness had the same sort of stigma, but was easier to hide.

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sauronsfinger
Post subject: Re: Kick a ginger day.
Posted: Wed 26 Nov , 2008 9:21 pm
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As someone who spent 34 years teaching children, its sad to say but kids will be kids and sometimes the worst side of human nature surfaces. Which is why it is vital that every school have a very strict policy about bullying which is well publicized to the students and their families well before any incident happens. And when it does, it is necessary to bring the hammer of Thor down upon the
offenders. I wish it were otherwise.

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