12yo girl receives death threats for being a redhead

[mysticrose]

My daughter has beautiful red hair, I hope she isnt bullied over it, I don't know what I will do ...
Prayers for this beautiful girl that she can overcome this, death threats over her hair what is our world coming to ?

 

[concentric]

This is what I always thought too concentric. I thought SouthPark made up the term "ginger". I also thought that it was a play on the "n" word since they just mixed up the first three letters. I really hate that show and hate that they have caused stress and bullying on children who have red hair.

Hi Nyla4. When my son was a toddler, an English lady told us that they called children with red hair "ginger" and it was a complimentary term. IMO, it was the Southpark episode, and not the British Isles people who made it derogatory.

 

[orb4me]

My 3 daughters are red heads. one of my daughters married a red head and they have a red head daughter. they get compliments all the time. I wish I could post their family picture, but my whole family agree about the dangers of posting pictures on the internet now.

I was bullied a couple of times in grade school, I bullied a girl in grade school, I still remember who and what I said, and I still feel bad (Im 67 yrs old) Nothing was ever said real loud. Then in HS. it became a matter of confronting someone. so and so said you said sssssssss. agree or say no, and that was the end of it. 1950s.

I know at some point when a fight happened, both kids got suspended or an in school suspention.

What happened between then and now?

I would think there had to have been a point in time that all hell broke loose.

My granddaughter got slapped in the face in preschool!!! shes a very quiet child. she was scared to death.

 

[maggieo]

It is a British term and while I don't think it's necessarily derogatory over there -- you would you use the term even if you liked red hair -- there is a huge bias against redheads in Britain. I don't get it. Before I brought a boyfriend home, my English relatives would say, "He's not ginger, is he?"

It's completely stupid. Maybe it's anti-Irish? Whatever: red hair is gorgeous. I wish mine was red! I'm still mad at my relatives so I conduct a little pro-red hair campaign: whenever I spot a particularly nice head of red hair on the street, I point it out to my kids: LOOK AT THAT GORGEOUS RED HAIR!

 

[Lynx FM]

I recently watched a repeat of a television show called "Why Eric Killed". This was the story of Eric Smith who, at the age of 12 or 13 murdered little Derek Robie (age 6).

From what I gathered from the show, Eric was a true red haired boy who had been tormented and shunned by every child in his school and suffered emotionally and often physically every single day of his life once he entered the school system.

His anger at being bulleyed built up to a point where he didn't know what to do with it.
Little Derek, Eric's neighbor, was a happy BLOND boy without a care in the world.
Eric brutally murdered Derek.

I personally do not think that Eric would have murdered Derek, or anyone else, had he not been tormented by his young peers all of his life.........just because he had "red" hair.

 

[KarlK]

It's completely stupid. Maybe it's anti-Irish?

That is likely the origin of the bias, even though some will say that it's a remnant of Roman and Saxon times when it was believed that Celtic warriors with red hair has obtained it by dying it with blood, preferably Roman or Saxon blood. There is also the fact that red is the least common hair color among white people, or any people for that matter.

I noticed that up until very recently the British media tended to depict Irish people as being invariably redheaded even though only a small minority of people living in Ireland actually are. In fact in my travels on the British Isles I have noticed that there is no discernible physical difference between most people in England and Ireland and I remember wondering how challenging it must have been in the "good old days" to discriminate against someone when all one had to go on was accent and (sometimes) last name. Besides, there are lots of redheads in Britain who aren't Irish. One of them was Henry VIII, who was of Welsh and French extraction.

Anyway, I have never heard of someone being bullied for having red hair in the US, even though there are even less people with that hair color here than in Britain, but here it is rarely associated with one's ethnicity. The bias also appears to exist in France where redheads are often dubbed "carrothair" or something similar.

 

[wallflower67]

I had heard it was anti-Irish, from my dad. I come from a family of red-heads. My dad is a red-head and was bullied by a TEACHER who hit him when he was in about 5th grade. My grandfather definitely raised hell over that! My brother is a red-head and has always hated it because he was teased in school. He is now a brunette, but is letting it lighten a bit. I have light auburn hair that has darkened as I've grown older, so I color it to get the red back in. My mom hates the red in her hair and has spent years trying to be blonde! My daughter appears to have brown hair, but get her in the sunlight, and it's like her hair is on fire!

I love red hair like this little girl has! When I can get my hair that shade, my skin looks so much healthier. I'm very pale. Without the red hair, I look like a vampire lol

 

[wallflower67]

I should add that my daughter was just hospitalized for 3 weeks for suicidal thoughts...due to bullying at school. Nothing to do with her hair.

 

[2goldfish]

I should add that my daughter was just hospitalized for 3 weeks for suicidal thoughts...due to bullying at school. Nothing to do with her hair.

I am so sorry for your daughter. I hope she is doing better & you've found a solution for the problem.


I just popped by cause I saw this beautiful photo and wanted to share.


I think it will blow the margins so I shall link

http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/gingers.jpg

 

[Snick1946]

There is a lot of predjudice against redheads in Asia. The Japanese were brutal toward Americans with red hair unfortunate enough to be a POW. Usually they killed them.
My son was born with bright red hair but never had much problem with it, it has darkened over the years.
I do recall one episode though. He, my wife and I were in a resturant when a drunk guy staggered up to our table and started making rude comments about my son, who was sitting in a high chair. ("Who set your hair on fire?? That sort of stuff) Interestlingly, this was an hour or so after we left the hospital after my mom had passed away. We were just trying to decompress and here was this oaf- probably about 70 or so- his friends were trying to pull him away. I finally told him I was going to beat the holy crap out of him if he didnt leave my family alone, by then the resturant people had intervened.
Like I said that was about the only real case that I know of, but it was a doozey. Oh yes, we got a hefty discount on our bill.

 

[sistersleuth]

There is a lot of predjudice against redheads in Asia. The Japanese were brutal toward Americans with red hair unfortunate enough to be a POW. Usually they killed them.
My son was born with bright red hair but never had much problem with it, it has darkened over the years.
I do recall one episode though. He, my wife and I were in a resturant when a drunk guy staggered up to our table and started making rude comments about my son, who was sitting in a high chair. ("Who set your hair on fire?? That sort of stuff) Interestlingly, this was an hour or so after we left the hospital after my mom had passed away. We were just trying to decompress and here was this oaf- probably about 70 or so- his friends were trying to pull him away. I finally told him I was going to beat the holy crap out of him if he didnt leave my family alone, by then the resturant people had intervened.
Like I said that was about the only real case that I know of, but it was a doozey. Oh yes, we got a hefty discount on our bill.

That explains why my dad really hates the Japanese, he was in the Marine Corps in WWII and he is a redhead (well, when he had hair he was)

My hubby is also a redhead, I love them!

Glad you got a good discount, what an *advertiser censored*!

 

[Kaybug]

The girl in the picture is very pretty with beautiful red hair.

I have red hair, went to school in the 50's and 60's and was teased about it. The verbal teasing I got was all in good fun done by people I knew and liked. I was and still am very proud of my red hair and they knew it. I consider having red hair to be special!

 

[Acer]

In Australia they are called Ranga's or Bluey.....

We can't hate them...the Prime Minister is a red head!

I am a natural pale blonde and used to wish for red hair....only a true red head can carry off the bright shades they have in their hair.

 

[bellyup]

they pick on redhead relentlessly here It's horrible.