Why the fuck are some English people so nasty about ginger hair?

[QuentininQuarantino]

My beautiful DH is ginger. When we first got together, he was attacked from
behind and had his jaw broken, had a McDonald’s throws at him out of a car window, had a bloke push him into
a pond at university. My own “friends” asked me when I was pregnant what I would do if my baby came out ginger. He tells me heartbreaking stuff about being bullied at school.

We emigrated 10 years ago and people say nothing, or nice things.

We’ve been back in the UK for Xmas for 3 weeks and we’ve already had people (older people) shouting “Oi Ed Sheeran” across the street about four times, one young woman in a pub asking to see his pubes FFS.

Why is it still okay, and common(!) to bully strange men in front of their small children purely based on a psychical characteristic!!??

It's racism, pure & simple.
Red hair is not English enough, it's more likely to be found in families with Irish, Scottish or Welsh blood.

I sometimes wonder when people talk about the 'British' not being racist, then other people come on who disagree & talk about their experiences in the UK, if it's actually the English who are more likely to be racist & the more tolerant people in this country are more likely to be from Irish, Scottish or Welsh families.

My daughter has the most beautiful copper hair, the colour people pay hundreds to try to get from their hairdresser but from primary school and into her teens her peers continue to make her life misery because they perceive her as a ginger and that’s worthy of a slagging. She now tries to dye her hair unnatural colours to get away from the bullying and it breaks my heart.

As a toddler and small child we were forever stopped by old ladies complementing her hair colour. Now she masks it because she wants the bullying to stop.

Have you read the thread? Many Scottish people have said it's a problem in Scotland too

My DH is ginger and was bullied very badly as a child. The stories he tells me about his time at school break my heart.

Our DS (7 weeks old) was born with dark brown hair and my husband was relieved hoping he won’t have to go through what he went through. Makes me so sad 😞

@Calibrachoa you do realise Scotland has a huge history of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment?

It's been around for a long time. I remember this playground rhyme from the 70s in ne Scotland. Ginger heid, carrot nose, pull the plug n awa she goes. Kids are cruel little buggers.

Quite incredible several posters think discrimination of people with ginger hair doesn't happen in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales or the Republic of Ireland.

It does. It's not anti-Catholic since there's loads of ginger Protestants or anti-Celtic since loads of English gingers are also on the receiving end (as if the English don't have Celtic ancestry 🤦‍♂️).

Seems to me its very much appearance based discrimination and certainly not the only one.

I have a few English and Northern Irish relatives who have ginger hair too.

Which doesn't exactly help Broken's point that "English people are racist, Scottish, Welsh and Irish are tolerant" that I was disagreeing with, does it!

@DownNative NI, the haven for Irish catholics… The reality is all the places you refer to in your post have been dominated by English supremacism in the past. Those ideas become imbedded in the culture, drifting down through time until children and adults are still using these slurs many decades and centuries later without necessarily a real understanding where they came from.

@Calibrachoa I’m not disagreeing with you on that. I was replying to your post regarding it happening in Scotland and highlighting the historical context.

Wow, how awful! My DH is also ginger, truly glow in the dark, carrot orange and he’s never experienced anything like this… we’ve lived all around the uk and abroad. Your DH has truly had it very bad but this isn’t DH’s experience at all.

DH has Irish grandparents btw but was born in the uk and traveled/moved schools loads as an army brat and then with me for work throughout our 20’s. We just haven’t had this abuse anywhere. I’m sorry to those who have.

LOL @ 'appearance based discrimination'..

Well yes, it's appearance based, like all racism.

The idea behind it is that the red haired among us are Irish and Catholic, and there are negative connotations to those categories among certain cultures whether you want to believe it or not.

@Opine

It looks as if you've completely misread my posts here.

First off, I don't have red hair and I never said I did.
I have two DCs who have red hair.

Secondly:
Red hair is not considered a negative in the US.
This is because red hair is associated with Irishness in the US and Irishness is considered a good thing there.
People in the US who have other heritage and ancestry who have red hair are often assumed to have Irish roots - examples are Germans, Dutch, Danish, Jewish, Russian, and people with all sorts of other ancestry.

I wonder what's behind it in France as per the article posted earlier, about bullying of red heads there and the child commiting suicide because of it.

I wonder what's behind it in France as per the article posted earlier, about bullying of red heads there and the child in the linked article commiting suicide because of it.

I have Scandinavian parents and loads of redheads in our family. We think it's cool to have redhair. No Irish or Catholics among us. Must be because we live in the states...seriously think the whole 'hating ginger' thing in the UK is bonkers.

Please can we stop using disablist terms such as moron and cretin. It's not even true - I went to a grammar school and had people make comments.

I've only experienced it in the UK. Although an American once told me that they assume I have a fire crotch 😂

I have read that Scotland has the highest concentration of redheads and many more carry the gene. I've also read that it stems from antisemitism although I don't understand the connection there.

I wonder what's behind it in France as per the article posted earlier, about bullying of red heads there and the child in the linked article commiting suicide because of it.

@Opine

Yes, in the UK, the association of red headedness and Irishness (and ergo Catholicism) is the guiding force behind the abuse of people with red hair.

Gah. It kept saying it wasn't posting. I'll ask them to remove the extra posts

It's explained about the antisemitism link under France and Germany
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_people_with_red_hair