I’ve been wondering a couple things lately. 1) When did everybody start calling redheads “gingers”? and 2) Why ginger? Ginger isn’t red, it’s gold. If anything we should be calling blonds ginger, not redheads. 
It seems like it’s primarily a UK term that got popular in the US when South Park did a couple episodes using the word. Why “ginger”? No idea.
I found this online:
I actually just had a conversation with a British friend about this XD According to her, ginger and redheads are two different colors. Gingers are more…orange…and redheads are more red. Which…is odd to me but whatever XD I do agree though that it’s mainly a British thing that’s worked its way over here.
My son, when he was three, asked why they were called red-heads instead of orange heads.
Thanks for starting this thread. I hadn’t known that it’s fairly widespread. I just thought my had adopted the habit as an affectation.
Venerable Australian comic strip, dating from the 1920s: Ginger Meggs
Because orange, interestingly enough, didn’t enter the English language as the name of a colour until the 16th century, after the fruit had arrived: prior to that the colour of an orange would have been, well, red. We still use it sometimes; rust is usually called red and not orange.
I don’t have red hair, nor does anyone I know (aside from a High School classmate I haven’t seen in 20 years.) That having been said the term “Ginger” strikes me as highly offensive. It’s obviously meant as a slur.
You’re kidding, right? It’s just a word for a hair colour.
Are YOU kidding? In some schools kids participate in “Kick a Ginger Day.”
It DOES have sliiiightly slur-like connotations, mostly by proxy of the fact that a lot of red-heads have a pale, easily sun-burned complexions, and it’s used to torment them. However, the only people I ever hear using the slur-connotation (haw haw gingers can’t tan!) are gingers themselves, or people who are making fun of their close ginger friends. Really, it’s closer to a playground taunt than a slur.
Fair enough, like I said I don’t currently know any (not by bottle) red heads, but it seems to me mocking someone for something they cannot control is at the very least abusive/bullying.
Just a hair colour that makes people a target for bullying and prejudice.Here’sthe first article that comes up in a search on “ginger prejudice”. The anecdotes told are by no means the worst I have heard. The one that springs to mind is a pregnant red headed woman being told by her inlaws – as a joke – that her baby would be better off born dead than ginger.
Ginger is as much of a slur as “pizzaface” is. Except I’d probably find the latter much more hurtful if I had acne. I hope that article was written tongue-in-cheek, because the idea of redheads experiencing “prejudice” beyond playground bullying is pretty laughable. The reason even adults indulge in this “prejudice” for humor is because of the shared implicit belief that hair color is inconsequential. I imagine it could be annoying at worst. If it is such a problem go to wal mart and get a bottle of hair dye.
My three year has red hair. Over here, that means she’s called a ranga (short for orangutan). So far, it’s been affectionate but I’m not looking forward to her school years.
For what its worth, Im a redhead and have no strong memories of anything about it bullying wise, and went to school in the US, England and NZ. But there does seem to be at least some isolated or historical events where it went beyond simply teasing.
Otara
So if a black person is discriminated against for having nappy hair they should go to Wal Mart and buy some straightener?
I actually understand this prejudice less than other forms, like racism or sexism. What reason did people have to consider redheads inferior? For Black people, it was so you could not feel guilty about enslaving them. For women, it was an attempt to take control of the mating process.
What reason was there in insisting redheads were inferior? Did it indicate ancestry?
Yeah, if the hair is the sole cause of the problem.