A family of six have fled two homes after enduring a vicious hate campaign, apparently prompted by the colour of their hair.
Kevin and Barbara Chapman say that anti-ginger prejudice has led to their property being vandalised and their four youngest children being subjected to a litany of cruel taunts, verbal abuse and bullying.
The Chapmans and their children, who are from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, have a blaze of red hair which, they claim, has reduced them to living like fugitives in the city. Their plight carries uncomfortable echoes of the Catherine Tate sketch in which a group of ginger-haired outcasts find safety in a refuge after being ostractised by society.
Another victim of hair-colour prejudice, the Premiership footballer Dave Kitson, of Reading, claimed two years ago that fans who made fun of his red hair were as bad as racists.
This year, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, dismissed his homeland security spokesman after a race-row scandal. Patrick Mercer, a former Army colonel, had said that soldiers with red hair were given a “far harder time” than blacks and that comments like “Come on you black b******” and “Come on you ginger b******” were “the way it is in the Army”.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Ginger is the new black?
From the Times:
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3 comments:
Good heavens, that is awful, not to mention bizarre. I've always been partial to ginger colouring, myself (the prettiest woman I ever knew had a head full of absolutely blazing red curls).
Years of anti-racism campaigning has left very few natural targets, hasn't it?
Shadow trade and industry secretary Alan Duncan said that Mercer “appeared to be indifferent to the fact that someone was taunted for being black.” If there is one word that describes Patrick Mercer then it surely must be “indifferent” for the reason that he seems to be indifferent to the death toll in Iraq and he decidedly wants more “boots and bayonets” on the front line.
I’m afraid he will not be satisfied until the number of dead British soldiers matches that of the US soldiers and even more worrying is his call to attack Iran regardless of the fact that such an attack would likely result in reprisals that would see the death of so many citizens of this country. I’m afraid that Patrick Mercer is another one of those bloody politicians that is more than willing to have us pay “the blood price” because it is well understood by men like him that WAR can be the making of a politician.
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