For many years any person with red hair had a lingering fear that they would be kicked on "Kick a Ginger Day". You may ask, who started or how did it start? The only thing to blame is media. Not only television but social networking sites. The big one being Facebook, which almost everyone reading this probably has an account to.You ask how? Here is an episode of South Park that will give you an idea of how this all started.
South Park : Ginger Kids episode
In the South Park episode Cartman delivers something that could be considered a hate speech, arguing that "Gingers"—people with red hair, freckles, and pale skin—are disgusting, inhuman, unable to survive in sunlight, and have no souls; all because of a condition called "Gingervitis". When Kyle points out that he too has red hair, Cartman says that there is a second class of redheads, the "daywalkers", who have red hair but not pale skin and freckles, and concludes that "If you think that the Ginger problem is not a serious one, think again!" while he clicks through a clip, and stops on a picture of Carrot Top . (Wikipedia). This episode is encouraging the hate of people with red hair and freckles, generally called ginger, but this wasn't the end of it. They also encouraged people to kick a ginger on November 20th.
After millions of people watched the episode- it was a considerably popular show in 2005 when the episode first aired - a group of people decided to create a "National Kick a Ginger Day" facebook page. It asked for people to get their shoes ready and on November 20th find a ginger and kick them.The Facebook group quickly grew to over 5,000 members and the day turned into a big even. Many people were kicked and injured and it lead to many arrests. On
e sad case of a ginger being kicked was the story of Aaron Mishkin. During the 13 year old's 7 minute break between classes he was kicked many times, not knowing what Kick a Ginger Day was. By the end of the day Mishkin was kicked/hit over 80 times leaving him with bruises.Media played a big role in the creation of this day. It was encouraging the hate of a specific group and allowed the message to spread very quickly and become more effective. Television was not the only culprit but Facebook as well
Do you think it was okay for South Park to even air this episode on tv
Do you believe that the creators knew that it would lead to what has happened now
and What do you think Facebook could be doing more to help stop bullying, and creation of hate pages.
I think this is so sad. South Park should not have aired this episode because it's really mean and it's basically promoting bullying. Saying that ginger's have "no souls" is really rude and can be hurtful for so many people. I also feel really bad for Aaron because he didn't do anything to deserve to get kicked/hit over 80 times.
ReplyDeleteThe people who produced this episode should have thought before they decided to put it on air. They probably didn't know that it would lead up to what has happened now, but they should have known that it would lead to some type of violence and hate towards people with ginger hair.
I think that Facebook should be moderating what is happening on the site more. They always claim to be watching the site and taking down anything that is inappropriate, but I never see any of that happening. There are so many inappropriate groups and events that are being passed around and they’re barely ever being taken down. There is also so much bullying going on through facebook and they don’t do anything about it. I think it’s dumb that you get a part of your account frozen for a few hours, or even a few days, if you’re sending too many messages to someone (this has happened so many times to me -_-) but when people create distasteful and hateful groups, nothing ever happens to them. I think if they moderated these types of things more, it would help stop bullying. It may not help a lot, but every little bit counts.
It's okay legally but morally it's not okay for South Park to air this episode, even though it's indented for humor because it's racist. It's discriminating to one type of appearance. They should know that there are people out there who takes things to the next level and creates a whole new situation, ex. Kick a Ginger Day. They should have though of this before they even aired the episodes. This shows how much media impacts and influences people thoughts to act upon certain believes.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the creators didn't know that things would turn out like the way they did. If they know this was going to happen then they wouldn't air the episode in the first place.
What Facebook can do to help stop bullying is take down those hate pages. They should be aware of what kinds of pages are being created so things like this don't happen again. Facebook is another example of how much the media influences people, because when events like this are created it sends out a message that it's okay for us to take part in these type of activities because other people are doing it too.
Get to watch Southpark for an English assignment? YES.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I feel this is not okay but at the same time have come to expect this from Southpark. It was risky to air this episode considering the big influence television has on youth. However you must consider that this was not intended for kids, rather for adults. In the examples you've given it mostly involved kids or youth. The producers are wrong in this situation, but not entirely.
This show is meant to be taken as a joke, and not literally, it presents many aspects which seem unbelievable but that is what makes this show so popular. I feel that the parents of these kids are more at fault, because the show has age restrictions. The parents should have knowledge of what their children is watching, in this case Southpark. I find this episode funny because of how ridiculous and stupid it is. I know that it isn't meant to be taken seriously, but that is why there are age restrictions. I don't fall under that category of over 18+ but I'm not as easily influenced as those kids are. Parents should know if their kids can be easily influenced and consider whether they are mature enough to watch content like this.
Facebook shouldn't monitor every single page and group made so how could they possibly have prevented an issue like this? I feel like they can add a report system, so that if people find a group offensive they can report them to Facebook so that they could take action.
I think that South Park should not have aired the episode because they should know that a lot of people do stuff they see on TV. Even if they put the do not attempt warning, people still do it. But there isn’t anything we can do because South Park just wants to make episodes so that people can watch it. They are known for stupid episodes that either make no sense or are disturbing but in the end they know that’s what some people like and that’s why they make them.
ReplyDeleteI think that they did know because it’s obvious that if it’s something funny, that people will do it. Just like so many other things that have been seen on TV and people do them in real life. I do not think that they really care what can happen after they make their episode because all media cares about is money.
I agree with you that Facebook is a big cause of these problems and they should do more to stop them. Something I think can happen is that they have someone who can approve each page before someone creates it. If someone wants to post a page on Facebook then they have to wait 24 hours until it gets approved or not. Also I don’t know if you guys are aware of what’s happening to Facebook right now with all the inappropriate pictures that people are uploading and no one knows who’s doing it and its suppose to be people who hacked Facebook.
I don't believe it was appropriate for south park to air this episode as this is clearly hate on a certain image that a few individuals fit.
ReplyDeleteWe say that we have evolved from racism and sexism, but how do we even let this be shown on television where access is even available to children. My cousins were born ginger kids and in fact kids taunt them in their school specifically due to this episode of south park which goes to show the effects.
The creators of this show aren't kids who didn't know the consequences of their actions but chose to follow through anyways. I would have loved to see a group of people that we assaulted during this "KICK A GINGER DAY" to file a law suit to the creators to let society know that this behavior will not be tolerated.
If Facebook was left to me, I would delete the whole system as every week we hear of stories of hate and crime that rose from Facebook use.
Unfortunately this decision is not up to me and so I think that if the creators of Facebook wish to continue this chat site they should hire workers in which monitor the groups created and stop hate crimes before they take place.