Pi-Consulting

Mercifully, advancing civilization provides legal restraints on the persecution of minorities, whether identified by race, skin colour or belief system. Try telling that to people in Britain’s with red hair, however. Your correspondent is one such, (well, WAS, until his hair turned grey some years ago), and he vividly recalls the epithets heaped scornfully upon him and his kind during childhood. Carrot-top, Duracell (i.e. copper-top, geddit?), Ronald McDonald, Ginger-snap… the list goes on, and so does the “good-natured” (really?) abuse. Redheads are considered glamorous in countries like the USA, which makes their not-like-me reputation and propensity for attracting snide comments all the more peculiar in Britain. The rap goes well beyond mere appearance. Redheads are supposed to have attitudinal issues too, provoking jokes like “What’s the difference between a terrorist and a red-head? At least you can negotiate with a terrorist”. Something to do with the high incidence of red hair among the Celtic races? Scots and Irish citizens are often accused of belligerence…. Small wonder, anyway, that many British redheads prefer to refer to their hair-color as “titian”, “auburn” or “strawberry blond”… anything but “red”. Sources BBC online news magazine, Pi.