Blame South Park
A Facebook group urged members to “get them steel toes ready” and kick a redhead.
Now the RCMP in British Columbia are investigating.
“National Kick a Ginger Day, are you going to do it?” – had nearly 5,000 members and put schools and the RCMP on heightened alert Thursday to the possibility of redheaded children being assaulted.
In one case, a redhead in Prince George, B.C., was kicked 18 times before being allowed to go home.
The Group’s leader:
“It was a joke, a lot of people joined it. It’s nothing serious. I joined it because … I don’t know.”
He said he didn’t kick any redheads on Thursday, and he was “not sure” whether anyone else acted on the group’s premise.
“I’m going to apologize,” he said. “I’ll message everybody and say I’m sorry that this offended people.”
“It’s very disturbing,” RCMP spokeswoman Constable Tammy Douglas, “whenever you get a group, especially a large group of people like that, who are trying to incite violence toward a group of people, based on something as simple as the colour of their hair, it’s pretty disturbing.”
The creation of the group doesn’t constitute a hate crime, but Constable Douglas said it was troubling that people were advocating violence. “We are investigating the website and the inciting of violence toward other people,” she said. Charges are unlikely, she added.
The day the group devoted to kicking a redhead came in the middle of Bullying Awareness Week.
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
“I’ll message everybody and say I’m sorry that this offended peoplle.” That’s an apology? This lad needs to be told in no uncertain terms that ‘offending people’ isn’t his problem, it’s inciting others to violence. As it is, he’s saying that he’s done nothing wrong, and implying the offended people shouldn’t be so sensitive.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
When i was 10, i had my front teeth chipped when a ‘ginger basher’ shoved me from behind into a drinking fountain tap, in the school..most red haired people i have known tell me of certain other incidences they have had to endure through the years..
Perhaps they hate us because we are about as Anglo Saxon as you can get, and there is such self loathing for our race and culture in the west today..
Because of this, i learned to box, and did so all through out university and the army.No one makes snide remarks to me anymore, if they know what is best for them, and i help the few nieces and nephews i do have with red hair to stand up to bullying..
Best part? I ‘m left handed as well..!! who’d like to face a really mad, trained south paw boxer with a red haired type temper? Not many..
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:05 am
While Southpark has child characters, it is essentially a cartoon for adults. The humour is meant for adults to understand.
One could have substituted Jews and blacks in place of ginger kids and understood the story.
For those who participated in Kick a Ginger Day, next time, use your common sense or go jump in a lake.
Meanwhile, I have to deal with a bunch of people who really annoy me: N_GGERS. (Missing letter: A) (From a South Park episode)
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:20 am
And not surprising me at all, the kids out there understood that this was a joke. Maybe some adults (or maybe editors looking for an easy story) need to start learning from the kids.
Every story I read about this foolishness failed to report a SINGLE incident. Kids……. smarter than your average reporter or school administrator.