Gingers Unite!

Debra Messing and Conan O'Brien prove that redheads have more fun. (Contributed Photo)

While I was walking through the BCC the other day, someone came up to me and, raising her fist in the air, proudly hollered, “HEY! Gingers unite!”

To this I had no reply because I had never seen this person before in my life, and she was not a ginger.

For those who may be out of the contemporary lingo loop, a “ginger” is a term for a person with red hair. It originated as a derogatory name meaning “soul-less day-walker.” However, much like the fathers of the American Revolution did with the song “Yankee Doodle,” we redheads have taken a term meant to deride us and adopted it as our own. We now use it with pride.

We stand out in the crowd, and are proud of it. Who doesn’t notice a redhead? It’s impossible. In a sea of blondes and brunettes, seeing a redhead is a nice change. We keep life more aesthetically pleasing and switch things up a bit. We genuinely like being gingers.

Nevertheless, a few blaring ginger misconceptions must be set right and some facts must be brought to the table.

1)    We do have souls. It’s true; I swear.  I don’t care what South Park says. People with red hair are not soul-less day-walkers. We are really very nice people. We laugh and cry just like the rest of you.

2)   Our hair is not orange. I repeat our hair is NOT orange! It is red. We don’t go around declaring that blondes are really yellow. Please show us the same respect. If you still hold that it is not red, please use a more technical color. The only acceptable names are auburn, copper or a combination of the two. Strawberry blonde is also acceptable for some shades.

3)    People who are not of Irish decent can have red hair. Yes, you read that correctly. All denominations of Celtic peoples also carry the ginger gene; this is includes the Scots, Welsh and even English. Now, you might say that makes sense and that you could have figured that out yourself. But did you know that some Italians and other central European nationalities are known for their auburn locks? Fact: some northern Italians are prone to be gingers. Case and point: my mother. Not a drop of Celtic blood in her and she looks like a leprechaun.

4)    It doesn’t matter how well you dye it, if your ginger comes from a bottle you are not a ginger! Sorry everyone, the truth hurts sometimes. Now, I am not saying that dyed hair looks bad; some shades actually come out quite nice and red highlights do wonders … but it’s not the same. A bottle job is a bottle job. True redheads can spot you a mile away. If it’s dyed it doesn’t fly.

5)    And now for the most important statement of this article: natural redheads comprise only four percent of the world’s population. This means that out of 6.8 billion human beings walking this planet, only 2.72 million are redheads. We could be a minority group in and of ourselves. Some would worry, being of such a small percentage, that we are a dying breed. On the contrary! We are a small group yes, but we are unique and proud of it.

We are not going anywhere. Gingers unite!