Being a red head is a funny thing. On one hand, you can’t complain too much. I mean, we’re still white. It’s not like as a group we’ve suffered through years of oppression. We are generally of above average intelligence. We’re a novelty. Red heads represent less than 2% of the population, even less have freckles and green eyes (I call this the Thompson Trifecta).
However when you are being teased mercilessly, and occasionally being physically abused because of your hair colour, it’s kind of difficult to remember the perks.
(Did I mention that red heads are more sensitive to pain? We bleed more, and are more likely to have reactions to things like injections and allergies).
One of my least favourite of the insults is the word ‘ranga’. For anyone unfamilar with the term, it’s short for orangutan. For anyone still not making the connection, organutans are also red heads.
Being called a ranga isn’t just your every day ginger insult. There are plenty of words to describe red heads and the vast majority aren’t very nice, but the difference with ranga is the implication that red heads haven’t evolved. That we are like orangutans. That we are a different species.
Angela Mary Claire (not pictured)
We have learned that groups can reclaim words that have previously been used against them. Queer, dyke, fag, nigger, and now slut, have all been reclaimed and are now used by the people they used to be used against.
But for words to be reclaimed they have to be taken back by the people they were used against. The general population can’t just decide all of a sudden when a term is no longer an insult and is only being used in jest. I can’t just start calling my Italian workmate a dirty wog with the disclaimer that it’s all in fun. A word can’t go from insult to general use without something in the middle. Thankyou, but I will decide when I will stop being offended by the term ‘ranga’.
So no, raising money with an International Ranga Day and asking kids to wear red clothes and wigs is not okay. The fact it’s a fundraiser for orangutans, in my eyes, makes it worse not better. There would be plenty of people out there who had never realised where the word ‘ranga’ orginated. They have now.
Having “four eyes for Fred Hollows Day” wouldn’t be okay, so why is this?It’s endorsed name calling. And next time a red haired kid is being teased for being different, who are they going to ask for help? It’s just been publicly acknowledged that they are different. And if you think that red haired kids don’t get bullied for their haircolour, I have a scar on my face that says otherwise.
Teasing your friends is a lot different to singling out a group of kids at a school. My friends know that they can tease me about my hair and that I’m fine with it, but they also know where the line is. I tease them as well, about anything I can make up. I’m prone to crossing the line. But I wouldn’t tell kids that it’s okay to use those words.
So think back to highschool and remember the name you were called that you hated the most. Everyone has one. You might have been a jock, or gay, or the only Asian kid, or short, or tall, or fat, or skinny, or too white, or too dark, or have braces, or glasses, or maybe your mum taught at the school, or you were clever, or not clever, or bad at sports, or your parents had divorced, or you were the weird kid, or maybe you wet yourself in grade one and no-one’s let you forget it.
Now imagine that the teachers said it was okay to use those words, and for one day everyone was going to dress just like you. To raise money for monkeys.
That are just like you.
