Discriminatory Attacks on Red Heads

The South Park inspired joke that sparked a series of attacks against children who are red heads, reinforces the impact the media has on children and the danger that can result because of poor choice of message.

Started by a Canadian Facebook member in Vancouver, British Columbia, the group, which boasts a membership of some 5000, urged people to kick a red head on November 20. The Canadian law enforcement officials are looking at classifying this as a hate crime because it has actively promoted discrimination against a group of people with a special characteristic i.e. red head.

According to the TV Show South Park, Kick a Red Head Day was declared as November 20. Some parents kept their children home from school for fear of them being attacked. Anti-bullying groups across the country were not amused either.

Discrimination and harassment because of race, age, sex, sexual orientation and religion, for example are carried out by those people who like to bully and they will stop at nothing to bully others and make them feel smaller than they themselves feel. Bullies are basically cowards who use brute strength to prove to others they are worth something. Those children who responded to the call to kick a red head needed an excuse to do what comes naturally to them.

Blacks and visible minorities have faced discrimination and harassment in schools, in the workplace, in social clubs and in their neighborhood because of the color of their skins and because they look different. When we turn a blind eye on these incidents thinking it is not our business, then incidents like Kick a Red Head happens and then it becomes your problem.

Like Martin Luther King Jr. said, we should not judge a person by the color of his skin but by the content of his character and Harriet Tubman's words that none of us are free until we all are free ring true today. We cannot look the other way to any type of discrimination. When discrimination happens to one it happens to all. All types of discrimination are wrong and parents have to teach their children right from wrong and never condone discrimination of any type, shape or form.

This also reminds me of the renowned international teacher Jane Elliot's experiment with Blue Eyes Brown Eyes - A Class Divided that Elliot conducted among her grades 3 and 4 students in a small all-white town in the United States of America. Her experiment was to teach children that discrimination hurts people and that it is wrong.

By holding up red heads as people to discriminate against, the blondes, and brunettes must feel a little privileged, a little better, a little superior.

It may be a game, but when people start acting out these scenarios it cease to be a game and it becomes real. There are real hurt feelings and real sense of entitlement.

I think the best way to deal with this outrage, as an educational opportunity to raise awareness of discrimination, of accepting difference and the beauty of diversity.