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Sources: Re: Kick-a-Ginger Day

  • 1.  Sources: Re: Kick-a-Ginger Day

    Posted 11-27-2009 23:47
    Though attributing this prejudice to a 2005 TV show is to be expected of our American cousins, this is, to the best of my knowledge from the perspective of New Zealand, an old English prejudice and tradition. Our English heritage leads to to revel in labelling and excluding people. My daughter attends a private Church of England/Episcopal elementary school, and some of the students, I'm sure parroting their parents, tried to start this kind of prejudicial behaviour a year or so ago. I came down hard on the Principal, and it seems to have stopped, at least publicly at school. I have on occasion heard insults shouted from passing cars at red haired people in Auckland, always including the word "ginger".

    Though those of us of Irish and Celtic heritage know for certain the opposite is true, some explanations of the prejudice are that the dislike of red-hair may derive from the historical English sentiment that people of Irish or Celtic background, with a greater prevalence of red hair, were ethnically inferior. Others speculate that the prejudice stems from the depredations of the Northmen, with higher frequency of red hair, when they went Viking.

    Regards,
    Romie Littrell

    Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.
    -Samuel Johnson
    Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
    AUT Business School N.Z., romie.littrell@aut.ac.nz
    http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
    http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
    Facilitator, Leadership & Management in Sub-Sahara Africa Conferences
    Contents copyright Romie F. Littrell

    --- On Wed, 25/11/09, Charles Wankel <wankelc@VERIZON.NET> wrote:

    From: Charles Wankel <wankelc@VERIZON.NET>
    Subject: Kick-a-Ginger Day
    To: GDO-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Date: Wednesday, 25 November, 2009, 0:53

    Fellow GDOers:

     

    I first encountered this on CNN.  Searching Google News and Google videos for additional information was hair-raising.

     

    Kick-a-Ginger Day.

    http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/22/california.redhead.attack.facebook/index.html

     

    The South Park episode that started Kick-a-Ginger Day is at:

    http://randsco.com/news.php/2008/11/27/ginger_blue_raccoon

     

    It reads like a recap of the Elliot experiential exercise for kids:

    http://bama.ua.edu/~sprentic/695%20Jane%20Elliott%20profile.pdf

     

    Videos by boys supporting this seemingly are left up:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJa6nIDdvpw

     

    This is so appalling that it is almost beyond using for pedagogic purposes.

     

    Best regards,

    Charles Wankel

    St. John's University, New York, home page: http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~wankelc

    higher education in virtual worlds: http://www.amazon.com/Higher-Education-Virtual-Worlds-Teaching/dp/1849506094