I got beaten like the red-headed stepchild I am today.

[Revising Ocelot]

I really shouldn't be talking about this stuff. Sorry for wasting a thread.

[pochercoaster]

Um, wait, what happened in between "walking into town" and "got forced to the pavement?" o.O Not that dashing someone's head against a curb is ever right, just seems odd that you'd leave that part of the story out.

Not really sure how to address the rest of your post... Bitterness, no matter how justified, is usually counterproductive, especially if you want to "start over" and regain a social life. Most people aren't terrible assholes, although institutions tend to do a good job of convincing people (particularly young people) otherwise.

Not actually suicidal

Although you clearly state that this is not the case, the fact that you bring it up is kind of worrying. I'm not very good at helping people, but um, are you doing alright? Perhaps you should talk to someone you know well IRL if you're not?

[Shyria Dracnoir]

When exactly did you move to the ass-end of creation again, and just where is it? Because that's the only place I can imagine shit like this going down.

In all seriousness, I'm sending all the happy vibes I've got your way. Hopefully things will pick up for you :ohdear:

[Krylo]

and just where is it?

Judging by the ex-post and what I know of that kind of specific bullshit... UK.

[pochercoaster]

I really shouldn't be talking about this stuff. Sorry for wasting a thread.

Lots of people ask for advice here. There's nothing wrong with that (as long as you take our advice with a grain of salt since it's the internet 'n all.) I mean, this is your thread, but like... if you're contemplating suicide or anything, please, don't, and get help. :( If that's not the case (and I don't think it is), then yeah, we're sending you happy vibes.

Edit: Also, seriously, people beat people up just because they're gingers?

This is still hard for me to believe because I live in an idyllic little corner of Canada, though. The world continues to amaze me with its assholishness.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Judging by the ex-post and what I know of that kind of specific bullshit... UK.

Fair enough. However, I am a little curious as to whether the ginger hate is stronger in some areas than in others.

[Krylo]

Also, seriously, people beat people up just because they're gingers?

This is still hard for me to believe because I live in an idyllic little corner of Canada, though. The world continues to amaze me with its assholishness.

I only heard about it a few months ago, myself. It's like racism for hair colors and the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

Ever.

[DFM]

I'm going to reserve judgement on hairism until I learn which colors are going to be the dominant ones.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

According to Wikipedia, brown and black are the most common natural colors for humans, with black possibly being the original human default. Blond is mostly restricted to people with genetic links to Northern Europe, and red hair is a recessive trait caused by a mutation in a specific gene that controls hair and skin color. Evidence for red hair in Neanderthals has also been found, albeit as the result of different genetic factors (I've heard of hypotheses that the redhead gene was bred into modern humans by crossing with Neanderthals, but I haven't found any real evidence for it yet).

So yeah.

[DFM]

I'm guessing it's going to be blond then.

[Aldurin]

I really shouldn't be talking about this stuff. Sorry for wasting a thread.

Unedit that immediately, I want to know what's going on. You don't get a free pass when you say something stupid.

Trust me, I know.

[DFM]

You can if you don't flood our pass factory, EVILEARL

[The SSB Intern]

Unless you're the guy's friend/family, you can't order him to share his personal life with you, not to mention on a publicly viewed forum.

On topic: Ocelot, from what I can gather, you could use some inspiring words (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax96cghOnY4). I can't claim to know what you're going through, but I do know how it feels to be singled out. My kindest thoughts are with you.

(P.S. If you value your sanity, do not read the comments in that video.)

[Krylo]

Having red hair doesn't make him gay, SSB.

[The SSB Intern]

It's the sentiment.

[DFM]

They can cure gay though, he's always going to have red hair

[The SSB Intern]

Do they not have hair dye where you come from?

[DFM]

Have you ever tried to dye red hair? The Devil's taint causes it to sizzle and burn like a vampire before a cross.

[The SSB Intern]

The hair is obviously rejecting the new color because it hasn't been appeased with boons of the years harvest and the innocence of the stylist's maiden daughter.

They teach this stuff in school, DFM, gawd.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

(P.S. If you value your sanity, do not read the comments in that video.)

Huh, well that should be easy enough to do.

*mouse wheel slips*

OHFU-
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m271/atkinstrout/180px-FaceMelt.gif

[TDK]

I don't hate homosexuals, I hate what they do though.

o_O

[Magus]

From what I understand the hatred of red-haired people in the UK is because of problems with Ireland in the past (where a lot of red-haired people came from), despite the fact that the average Briton has an incredibly high chance of having red hair as well, since despite whatever Britons think they, Scots, Irish, and Welsh's gene pool is basically identical except for some French thrown in there.

I had never heard of people hating "gingers" until South Park had an episode about it and frankly I thought they had made it up until I remembered all the problems between Ireland and England for the past 200-300 years (or longer, I'm not sure).

White people hating on white people seems to be a distinctly European problem, here in America we had lots of darker-skinned minorities to hate on so while Irish people like my family probably ran into hatred back after the large influx of Irish people (despite my being able to trace one side back to the 1790s and the other to the 1820s), it seems minor when you think of the problems Native Americans, African Americans, and so on have run into in this country.

In Europe however "everybody" is white so they have to come up with some other reason to oppress people (like that they're Irish or look Irish).

I'm probably way off on all of this though so if somebody knows the real reasons for the hatred of red-haired people in the UK, please share it.

I feel really sorry for you Ocelot and it sounds like you were hurt really badly. I don't know if talking to the police is what you should do, I don't know the situation in the neighborhood you live in and I know that a lot of times talking to the cops is actually going to cause more trouble for you. I hope you figure out some way to make the situation safer for yourself.

[krogothwolf]

I think you're forgetting that some stupid kid in BC created a "Kick the Ginger Day" on facebook that resulted in a lot of red-headed kids being kicked and beaten in North America.

[Magus]

Yeah but it seems recent. People in America seemed entirely unaware that they should hate on red-headed people until South Park mentioned it "was a thing", and frankly I thought they'd just made it up because it seemed utterly ridiculous (even more-so than regular racism, if that makes any sense). Then they were like "OOH NEW GROUP OF PEOPLE TO HATE ON FOR NO REASON" and that is why it is happening now.

But if it's been around for a long time here too I must just never have heard of it.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

I would just like to state for the record that for the most parts, us brits only see gingers as a source of good natured piss taking because, well, why not? Same as we do with the french and the polish and the germans and the americans and gay people and anyone from any town/city/county that isn't your own and the... you get the idea.

We are not actively running around hating on people, we just complain and take the piss out of anyone who is different. The idea of someone actually getting severely beaten for being ginger is quite shocking and until now, unheard of to me.

[Revising Ocelot]

So I was very angsty and depressed last night. Shouldn't have gone attention-seeking by posting this thread, but the damage has been done. I won't repost the details as everyone seems to be aware of roughly what happened anyway, and yes, I'm English. The whole issue was present back in primary school (when I was about 8 years old, I'm 22 now), way before South Park gave some people an excuse to call me a soulless monster. I wasn't even aware of that episode until recently.

I did try to change the thread title but that only seemed to change the post title, so I'd like this topic to be locked, please, because I'm really coming off as an attention whore for posting this here when I really shouldn't have. It's not appropriate.

[Krylo]

So I was very angsty and depressed last night. Shouldn't have gone attention-seeking by posting this thread, but the damage has been done. I won't repost the details as everyone seems to be aware of roughly what happened anyway, and yes, I'm English. The whole issue was present back in primary school (when I was about 8 years old, I'm 22 now), way before South Park gave some people an excuse to call me a soulless monster. I wasn't even aware of that episode until recently.

I did try to change the thread title but that only seemed to change the post title, so I'd like this topic to be locked, please, because I'm really coming off as an attention whore for posting this here when I really shouldn't have. It's not appropriate.

Chill, man, it's cool.

No one's judging you or whatever. Everyone makes a thread or two they regret. At least it's not a drunk thread.

Also: I don't actually have the power to close it. Nor does anyone else on right now.

[Ecks]

Guys. Guys. GUYS. Hey. Guys.

You have to BLEACH it first, THEN dye it.

[DFM]

Everyone makes a thread or two they regret.

I haven't. Not even the one that was just a picture of an Ork and me going "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHH"

[Ecks]

I haven't. Not even the one that was just a picture of an Ork and me going "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHH"

I made one once, not too long ago. It was called LET'S PLAY! Pokemon Emerald. It was so horrible... never again let me start an LP, ever. Even if it sounds like something simple and easy that I could actually, y'know, DO.

[Krylo]

I haven't. Not even the one that was just a picture of an Ork and me going "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHH"

How about that V:tM LP that everyone bugs you about now?

HEY HEY DFM IT SUCKS HOW YOU DIDN'T FINISH THAT! HEY DFM YOU SHOULD FINISH THAT! HEY DFM HEY HEY WHAT HAPPENS TO HELEN DFM!?

[Fenris]

I haven't.

http://yodadogcostume.com/wp-content/uploads/Yoda-Dog-Costume-300x300.jpg

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

I haven't. Not even the one that was just a picture of an Ork and me going "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHH"

I can see why; you can't even spell Waagh! right.

[DFM]

HEY FENRIS THAT WASN'T ITS OWN THREAD WAS IT

[CABAL49]

Yeah, I always thought the whole soulless ginger thing was a South Park Joke. My roommate has red hair and I jokingly call him a ginger all the time.

It does remind me of the Buraku. A friend from Japan showed me this link (http://blhrri.org/blhrri_e/blhrri/buraku.htm). Basically they are a group of outcast Japanese who are discriminated against because their ancestors committed some crime hundreds of years ago.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Japan didn't exactly miss out on the "oppressive colonials" act either (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people)

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I geniunelyhadno idea the rest of the world didn't have anti-ginger things.

[greed]

Australia is mostly fine. The only people who do it are...

I would just like to state for the record that for the most parts, us brits only see gingers as a source of good natured piss taking because, well, why not? Same as we do with the french and the polish and the germans and the americans and gay people and anyone from any town/city/county that isn't your own and the... you get the idea.

We are not actively running around hating on people, we just complain and take the piss out of anyone who is different. The idea of someone actually getting severely beaten for being ginger is quite shocking and until now, unheard of to me.

Hey Hawk. "Good natured piss taking" based solely on racial characteristics like red hair is still infuriating and as a red head I can tell you the English tendency towards this has contributed to my growing hatred of English immigrants. Thankfully I've never been on the receiving end of anything like Ocelot's ordeal, but still bad jokes randomly yelled for no reason, a bit of name calling in high school(I have broken a guy's nose for calling me ranga, that put an end to that) and other shit just adds up. The feeling of that kind of discrimination is pretty horrible, the thought that people just casually find you worthy of mockery just for something as retarded as hair colour, it makes you sad and mind numbingly angry at the same time. The only people I tolerate that shit from are some of my closest friends (who let me do wog jokes in reply so it kind of evens out).

So yeah continuing my point, fuck bigotry. And the English, seriously fuck you guys, I've never copped anything for my hair colour from anyone without a strong English accent (usually a lower class one too). Is it bigoted to hate a culture for having a pervasive trend of bigotry against you? I'd say a little, but justified myself.


Also Shyria you're forgetting WW2, Japan basically played catch up to the West by squeezing as many colonial atrocities against East Asia as the West had managed in 300 years into a 30 year span (starting with the invasion of that penninsula in North East China, forget it's name). Go go Japanese efficiency.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

As I said, we take the piss out of everyone, including ourselves. Doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what you look like, your personal philosophies, whatever, we'll still find something. It's just who we are. I think the rest of the world just doesn't get british humour (and yes I said british, not english, there is a distinction), which is probably more of where the problem comes from. We're all a bunch of sly, sarcastic, self depreciating, complaining bastards, but we're also surprisingly tolerant of everyone else as well, probably because we have to live with so many people we can't bloody stand!

(Psst, that's a joke there btw).

[greed]

Yeah sorry overeacted, just this kind of thing pisses me off. And yeah I know the distinction between British and English. I used the distinction myself because I've never gotten shit from someone with an Welsh or Scots accent.



Also sorry for calling you English if you're not English Hawk.