In our schools today, racism and sexism have been all but eliminated. Amazing progress has been made in attempts to limit hatred against people that appear different from their peers. There is, however, an exception in the world of today as “Ginger” hatred is a regular and accepted part of life in schools We can slow down this discrimination by sending kids a message that it is not okay to prey on gingers. These actions can be stopped by punishing anti-ginger outbursts to the extent of offenses sparked by racism, sexism, or homophobia.

There are some kids at school that stick out not because they are black, Mexican, or flamboyant in their dress, but because they are considered “Ginger”. Gingers are characterized by red hair and pale, freckle-spotted skin. In the past, these kids saw no disrespect from their peers at all for their appearance, but that all changed with the airing of an episode of South Park. The episode labeled the kids as “gingers” and notified the audience that they are in fact creepy and, in all probability, have no souls.
Since the South Park episode, ginger hatred has escalated to an alarming scale. Schoolchildren think its ok to make fun of ginger kids because they are not black, gay, or female, and therefore any offenses against them are not deemed significant to the level of a hate crime. This animosity has even been made into an organized event. On November 20 2009, the world celebrated the first “Kick A Ginger Day,” organized via Facebook. The culprits went largely unpunished because the victims of their hate were not of a perceived race. It wouldn’t be hard to think of the life-altering consequences if this had been “Kick a Black Guy Day” or “Kick a Feminist Day.”
Teachers and other authority figures generally take ginger hatred for granted; I was almost unable to write this paper because the topic “was not serious enough.” However, this is simply not the case as I discovered when an anonymous ginger has confided in me, “I literally get made fun of everyday for being ginger, one boy in particular has encouraged me to kill myself to help rid the world of my kind.” This discrimination cannot be allowed to continue.
One of the most frequent degrading remarks made towards the gingers is that they have no souls. Many children actually believe this and cite it as a justification for their hateful words and actions against this proud people. One boy, now known on across the Internet as “Ginger Kid”, created the video “GINGERS DO HAVE SOULS” via his Youtube account, “CopperCab”. In the video, this poor boy screams in frustration at the camera about how he is made fun of in school for being overweight and for being a “soulless” ginger. He also claims to have a soul. The true breadth of anti-ginger remarks can be seen in the comments to the video. They are too foul to be repeated here.
This ginger discrimination is an abomination against all that our country stands for and it must stop. Although we cannot prove that gingers have souls, we should assume that they do and end all of this hatred. Anti-ginger actions should be punished much more severely to ensure that ginger loathing ceases. We must assure these proud people of their place in our society.