Random clueless comment of the day:

[conuly]

In response to this column, and you can blame agonyaunt for the fact that I even read these.

Harriette's answer to this one was good. I can't help but say, however, that I am the only employee where I work, who has very long, red hair. That is not the reason I was hired, and I don't believe it has ever had any bearing on the way my co-workers feel about me, or the way they treat me.
You can say that isn't the same thing, but why isn't it? I was hired because my employer thought I was the best candidate for the job. I'm sure LW's employer thought the same about her. I go to work everyday with the intention of doing every aspect of my job to the best of my ability, and strive to be friendly and upbeat, even if I don't especially feel like it. I'm sure if LW goes to work with that same mind-set, she'll find the color of her skin doesn't matter any more than the color of my hair!

Oh, god, spare us your drivel. You know why it isn't the same thing? BECAUSE OF FREAKING RACISM.

Comments

[gingicat]

When I was a child, I remarked to my parents that I hoped that someday having dark skin would be no more discriminated against than red hair. Hasn’t happened yet.

[conuly]

And on the subject of hair, people rarely claim that redheads, based on having their natural hair, are gang-affiliated. But wearing textured hair in natural styles often gets that claim.

[movingfinger]

Time to revive burning red-haired witches!

[wpadmirer]

ARGH. This is that deliberate ignorance of white privilege. Makes me nuts.

[conuly]

Yup.

[hudebnik]

I'm sure if LW goes to work with that same mind-set, and all her co-workers do the same, and they all forget decades of upbringing that associates particular races with poverty and crime and poor education, and the economy changes sufficiently that particular races aren't correlated with poverty and crime and poor education, then she will indeed find that the color of her skin doesn't matter any more than the color of one's hair. That's a lot of "if"s....

[conuly]

And then there's all the commenters who are all like "blah blah blah do a good job and they'll stop noticing your skin color" and it's just... how about we can notice that LW is a complete person, who happens to have a race and ethnicity, and it doesn't affect what we think of them and their work?

FFS

[smokingboot]

If she comes to Blighty with her long red hair and calls herself something like O'Shea and talks about coming from say, Cork or Limerick or Dublin, she may learn a bit about the power of being good vs hardened discrimination.

Re: FFS

[conuly]

Yup.

Re: FFS

[gingicat]

When I was in England, I never experienced a noticeable amount of discrimination. Granted, I have a Very Jewish Name, but still. (And no noticeable discrimination for that, either.)

Re: FFS

[smokingboot]

Being Jewish in England has not really been an issue for a while, though there is still some snide anti-semitism here and there, influenced by the Palestine issue perhaps... Or maybe just people being unpleasant. I have friends who took ages to choose their child's name because the grandparents did not like anything that smacked of Judaism. The Irish did not have it easy in England through my childhood and the 70s. It died away somewhat after that, and I've never seen any in London or Oxford, but there still exist residual, let's call them stereotypes, elsewhere. And the rise of English nationalism seems to have given racists a new klaxon.

[silveradept]

Well, if I am that person's coworker, I know never to let anything important near them and dread their inevitable promotion to management.

[conuly]

Mm-hm.

[greghousesgf]

there are some really crazy comments in response to that article. Just proof that racists are nuts.

[conuly]

It's more that the comments are barely moderated, if at all. I have blocked so many people.

[jessie_c]

Because false comparisons are so often true.

[zesty_pinto]

Mmmm, that delicious gaslight.

[conuly]

I blocked so many people on that thread.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

"Why isn't it?" Well, when were all the gingers ENSLAVED? When were they systematically lynched? When were there ever laws forbidding redheads to marry blondes or brunettes, or to own property, or to sit in the front of the bus? When were there ever ANY laws that specifically targeted gingers as a group?

Red hair is a choice. Anyone who wants to be a redhead can be one; anyone who doesn't, can be something else. You can change the color of your hair every month for a year, and nobody will care, because hair color doesn't matter in America, whether real or fake. Skin color does matter, and you can't just go to the salon and change it if it's not working for you.

[conuly]

You said it.