There are those who say that race is an invented social construct.  There is color of skin, among other things, that serve as racial markers.  And often, people bearing those markers are persecutied if their particular marker is expressed by a minority of people in their part of the world.  But it’s not enough that a person has a certain skin color either.  Racist governments throughout history have taken great pains to measure the bloodlines of citizens, to insure racial purity.  If an ancestor of yours had black skin, your degree of blackness was carefully measured in your bloodline, not the actual tone of your pelt. 

But for some odd reason, not everything works that way.  Blond hair for instance, is uncommon and yet it’s almost always well favored in communities of mostly dark haired people.  Looked at, as merely one genetic variation out of many, it seems ridiculous that we treat color of skin one way and color of hair another.  How is it that human prejudice suddenly fixates on one thing?  The poet A. E. Housman mocked it in his poem, The Color of His Hair…

Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?
And what has he been after, that they groan and shake their fists?
And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air?
Oh they’re taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

The poem is a brilliant, and bitterly angry laugh aimed at prejudice by a gay man who knew the sting of it himself.  So rediculous to persecute someone for the color of their hair. Right?

Well…apparently not…

Red-haired family forced to move

Kevin and Barbara Chapman say they and their four children, aged between 10 and 13, have endured years of taunts, smashed windows and violence.

They said they moved from Walker to Newbiggin Hall to try to escape the bullying, and then again to Kenton Bar.

Son Kevin, 11, said he was recently punched in a street attack. Newcastle Council is "discussing the situation".

Mr Chapman, 49, said his 10-year-old daughter Ryelle and sons Daniel, 10, and Jordan, 13, have also been badly affected.

He said each time the family received abuse they moved home.

They’ve been punched and kicked and thrown over a hedge

The family also say they have endured their homes being daubed in graffiti.

Mr Chapman said: "The abuse we get is unbelievable. It started more than three years ago, when the kids started getting bullied by lads over the colour of their hair.

"They’ve been punched and kicked and thrown over a hedge. Every time they go out these gangs get to them."

He added that the family now wanted to move again.

Community police officer Sergeant Colin Murray, of Northumbria Police, said there had been a number of incidents all of which had been fully investigated.

Commenting on the matter, a Newcastle City Council spokesman said: "We are currently discussing their situation."

The first headlines I saw on this story, read that the family had "Ginger Hair", and I thought the poor family had some sort of unfortunate genetic defect that they were being mocked and tormented over.  I’d never heard the term before.  So I did what any computer geek will do: I did a Google image search on "ginger hair" and right away I got a page full of various red heads, many of which were actually quite beautiful.  I could feel my jaw dropping.  Jesus Fucking H. Christ…they’re talking about redheads…

Now ’tis oakum for his fingers and the treadmill for his feet,
And the quarry-gang on portland in the cold and in the heat,
And between his spells of labour in the time he has to spare
He can curse the god that made him for the colour of his hair.

Never underestimate the human capacity to hate people for any stupid shit reason they can dream up…