Apparently the word “ginger” is a (mostly British?) term to describe red-headed people in a derogatory way. So what’s so awful about being red-headed? I happen to think it’s quite interesting and often attractive.
How long has this word been used this way?
I have no idea about the term, actual Ginger is more of a honey color not red.
My mother was always called a carrot-top growing up in the U.S. in the '30’s. The term is still being used here as far as I know, although the comedian Carrot-Top may have changed the meaning of the term to something even more derogatory. My mother always responded that the tops of carrots are green so she wasn’t actually a carrot-top. Fortunately, I started out as a blonde so I only had to deal with the toe-head comments (still don’t understand that) and my own family telling me I was adopted because I didn’t fit in, my red-hair genes didn’t kick in until I got older.
More than you wanted to know about “towhead”
My mother, who gave both my brother and I our red hair, thinks it has to do with anti-Catholic, anti-Irish (yes, I know that Scots are more likely to be redheads, but Joe Average doesn’t - I was presumed to be “all Irish” just yesterday for the thousandth time) sentiment both in the UK and left over in the US from the wave of Irish immigration. This would account for the strange disconnect between redheads in the northeast and other parts of the US: northern kids, where there are still a lot of Catholics, get picked on mercilessly for having red hair, but redheads in other places report that they were never picked on at all.
As I understand it, Brits still aren’t so fond of the Irish, so I can see it being an even bigger deal there if the resentment is active rather than a cultural legacy.
And as an aside, I had an eye-opening experience a couple of months ago about how some people really hate redheads for no reason: my best friend and I have known each other since I was twenty, and I’ve known her parents for several years too. I get along with both of them. Said friend and I were talking about some snowboarder that her mother insists doesn’t have red hair, which I found strange because he obviously does. She goes on to tell me that her mother insists that not only does the snowboarder not have red hair, but neither do I. Apparently nice people don’t have red hair, so her mother tells herself that our hair is strawberry blonde instead! My friend said she’s argued with her coppery red hair like mine is one of the most common reds, but her mom adopted her mother’s position that redheads are bad and not to be trusted, so obviously nice people like me can’t possibly have red hair. I was rather surprised to learn this!
The derogation of redheads does seem to be pretty much a British thing. Here in the States, in 50-some odd years, I’d literally never heard of this prejudice until a year or so ago, and then only in the British context.
I haven’t been here for 50 years or more yet, and I grew up traveling around, but I am from the States, and I have heard of the derogation of redheads, but mostly it has been mild or in jest. Have you never heard of being treated “like a red-headed step-child”?
My take of “ginger” as derogatory though is that it has more to do with prejudices than the word. Ginger is an apt description and nothing at all is wrong with it unless you believe there is something wrong with being red-headed and/or freckled etc.
My mother was…literally…a red-headed, left-handed stepchild while growing up in backwoods Maine.
She started coloring her hair as soon as she could, though even tying her left arm behind her back wasn’t enough to make her ‘right-handed’.
Now, when I colour my hair a nice, warm auburn, I tell everyone I get my red from my mom, since she’s not using it. 
There are two things: there does seem to be a strange thing about redheads and people not liking them, but if someone shouted “Oi, ginger” after me, I’d be less thinking “Ah, he’s noticed my fine Titian tresses and is going to ask about my proud Celtic ancestry” and more thinking “Is he going to beat me up because he thinks I’m gay?”. This would be owing to ginger being short for gingerbeer, rhyming slang for queer.
By the way, when derogatory about the colour of someone’s hair, it tends to be pronounced with two hard gs, in my experience.
I don’t think it’s particularly complicated. Redheads are a minority and humans tend to marginalize minorities who are different in some visible way. You’re not looking for some kind of logical reason, are you?
My step-daughter has reached an age where she is experimenting with her hair color (and has been since she was much too young to be coloring her hair, IMO). She went through a phase of dyeing her normally dirty-blond colored hair to red (that orangey red that is common of natural redheads). I had a lot of fun those months complaining (in jest) about my “red-headed step-child”. But it caused quite a bit of confusion when she heard me complaining that I wouldn’t be treated “like some red-headed step-child” * because she had no idea what that meant (having been treated well no matter what her hair color was).
*That was also one of the last times I used that expression because it occurred to me that it could be seen as offensive, so I tried hard to wipe it out of my vocabulary. And I have nothing against redheads or stepchildren. Some of my best friends and favorite children are redheads and/or steps!
That would make sense if it were more universal. But it really seems to be mostly localized to the UK.
My theory is that there is a threshold. IF there is a really low number of something, it’s thought of as being either cool or just a little odd. But it doesn’t become something worth deriding until there’s enough of them to start creating stereotypes.
There also seems to be a level where it’s so common that it’s no longer seems bad. I live in a place with high Scottish and Irish ancestry, with red heads much higher than the normal population. (I’d say there are as many redheads as natural blondes, thought the latter are rarer around here) Being a red head is generally not thought of as a bad thing, and the one’s that are really bright seem to get treated even better. And almost everyone I know who dies their hair gets some red in it.
There still is the stereotype that redheads have a fiery temper. But amongst a lot of guys I know, this is considered a plus in women, as the fiery temper seems to be linked with a fiery something else.
BTW: did anyone else grow up thinking gingers were the lighter redheads that were closer to strawberry blonde?
I thought “ginger” as a color meant a sort of light reddish-brown, not blond(e) – you know, like gingerbread?
I’ve heard of the “as wanted as a red-headed stepchild” thing for years, and there was a bit of business in Anne of Green Gables about Anne’s being terribly hurt when Gilbert teases her by calling her “Carrots,” so I know that the “red-headed means freakish or ugly or not one of us” meme has been around for a long time. But it seems like the specific use of the word “ginger” is particularly English and has been around for only a few years as a particularly derogatory term. And yes, I’ve seen that YouTube of the comedian singing the song about the word “ginger” in such a way as to seem like he is referring to a particular anagram of “ginger.” A couple of years ago I read an interview with English actor Toby Stephens which describes him as “ginger-haired,” which he is, but wondered if there were some snarkiness in describing him that way.
This is not that article, but the first sentence makes the point that I’m not the only one to notice this phenomenon. The article also seems to describe anybody with any amount of red in his hair as being “ginger.”
Wiktionary also says it is a derogatory term.
England, WTH? Don’t be such haters! Red is gorgeous!
In Australia, a popular slang term for redheads is “ranga”.
Derivation: Orang-utan. Personally I find it funny, but my hair is light brown with a slightly reddish tinge, so no one would call me a redhead. A definitely red haired friend of mine has used the term to refer to himself, so clearly he thinks it’s funny, too.
Another Australian slang term for redheads is “Fanta Pants” which - again - all my redhead friends find hilarious.
Or a Blood Nut. If you want to go all traditional, you call your red headed mate “Blue”.
Actually, I only noticed it catch on as a derogatory term here in the US after it was the focus of a very popular South Park episode. Unfortunately it seems to have caused some problems for said gingers in real life. Before the episode I hadn’t even heard of the term, but now it’s seemingly everywhere.
I think that South Park made it more popular…and more derogatory but “Ginger” to describe that reddish-orangey hair (not auburn-red…you know what I mean ;)) pale-skinned, freckled appearance has been around for quite some time. I remember it being used (in the US) as a non-derogatory description in the 80’s.
South Park may have coined “Ginger Kids” however and the (hopefully joking) belief that Ginger Kids have no soul…
“Ginger” hair and “Gingers” as people with that coloring is still used non-derogatorily all over the place.
Here are just a few sites devoted to Red Hair that use “Ginger” and “Gingers” to describe the particular color:
http://www.purgatory.net/kornelia/1603/red_hair_facts.htm
Unless things have changed, my take is the British user ‘ginger’ as a mock derogatory term. A term of endearment really. I recall there was a british tv show ‘Catherine Tate Show’ that had sketches outrageously marginlising redheads a few years ago.
Growing up in England in the 70’s I recall boys throwing around the term “ginger minge” in a derogatory fashion at redhead girls, all the while wistfully wanting the ginger minge 
Personally, I prefer Mary Ann.
This seems a really odd way to phrase the question to me. To illustrate:
Apparently the word “nigger” is a term to describe black people in a derogatory way. So what’s so awful about being black?
I’m not intending to imply equality between the two words, so don’t even try that bullshit hijack plz.
Nothing is awful about being black, or red-headed, or whatever trait you happen to have no control over that assholes insist is a mark of inferiority. The term is derogatory because it was intended to be so. If you wanted to describe a red-head without derision, you would simply say “red-head”.
Of course, you have to realize it was Cartman who was vilifying “ginger kids” and since he’s a bigoted obnoxious asshole that’s pretty typical for him. Also, Cartman was really using his anti-ginger crusade as another way to get at Kyle who’s red-haired and Jewish.