Twice tonight someone has called me a ‘ranga’ or ‘ginger’. Leaving aside the derogatory nature of both those terms (which we will discuss at length in the future, I’m sure) and the arbitrary nature of hair colour (you can change it with a $10 dye packet, so why does anyone ever care?), my issue is this. My hair isn’t red. My beard is, but that’s because it’s thin. My hair is brown. Possibly with a slight reddish tint, but that’s like saying someone with dark brown hair has black hair. I could tolerate being called a ginger (not ‘ranga’, which is insulting, being derived from ‘orang utan’) if my hair was actually ginger. But it isn’t.
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Ginger’s not even orange! Turmeric on the other hand.
