"GINGERS DO HAVE SOULS!!"- A Mini Pop-Culture Analysis

 Almost every young adult in America knows where the quote “Charlie bit my finger!” comes from. One need only sing the first verse of the “Bed Intruder Song” before others join in with you. The phrase “keyboard cat” brings to mind the image of the musically inclined feline almost instantly. These are all “viral videos”: videos that gain vast popularity on the internet in a short amount of time. The viral video is a relatively new part of pop culture, the study of which can lead to some interesting insight into our society.

 The aforementioned videos all came from youtube.com, the most widely used video sharing site on the web. Youtube maintains a culture in which the average Joe or Jane has the potential to become a household name overnight. Never before the advent of the internet has instant celebrity of this kind ever been possible.

 Viral videos are considered to be “low culture”; the more pedantic among us will dismiss them as trivial and irrelevant. The audience base for youtube is mostly American teenagers and young adults, which may contribute to this view. While the general subject of viral videos may warrant an entire essay, the interest of this writer is on one viral sensation in particular.

 On January 14^th, 2010, a video entitled “GINGERS DO HAVE SOULS!!” was posted on youtube. It spread like wildfire across the web, as is characteristic of viral videos. The three minute video holds the rank of 24^th most discussed video of all time and it's the second most discussed in the “People & Blogs” category. It's gotten a little over 21 million views so far, and the number grows every day. So what's the subject of the post that has such impressive statistics?

 The vlog-style video(vlog standing for “video log”) stars a high school-aged young man who goes by the username of “CopperCab”. CopperCab identifies as a “ginger”, which is a slang term for individuals with natural red hair and pale, freckled skin. The term has been popularized in American culture by the ever-shocking adult cartoon show South Park, coming from the episode entitled “Ginger Kids”. In it, ginger children are portrayed as soulless miscreants who attempt to overthrow the country.

 While the episode is widely considered to be ironic and unoffensive by the majority of the public, CopperCab has a much different view on the connotations therein. He complains of verbal abuse from people at his school and general disrespect from others due to his pigmentation. While this report seems worthy of sympathy(the boy is being bullied, after all), the comments section has a copious amount of hate messages.

 This is due to CopperCab's style of stating his account- he roars at the camera and swears profusely throughout the entire three minutes. Many of his statements, while serious in nature, come across as hilarious to the casual viewer. Examples from the clip include, “You don't know me, you're not God.”, and the infamous “Ginger and proud of it.”

 A number of musical remixes and video parodies of the vlog have appeared all over youtube and elsewhere, all of which generally poke fun at it. Train wreaks like this are commonly popular on the internet. One other prominent example is the video “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!” by Chris Crocker, posted September 10^th, 2007, that's gotten almost 50 million views up to this date. In it he is crying, defending pop star Britney Spears(this was shortly after Britney's flop performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony). Crocker, like CopperCab, became a youtube sensation right away, and similarly experienced a great deal of backlash to his emotional tirade, including nasty comments, musical remixes, and video parodies.

 Though CopperCab's method of delivering his message is not all that eloquent, he does bring up an interesting and relevant issue in our society. That is, the issue of racism and racial subjectivity. Taking a look through the comments section, in between all the insults to his appearance, there are many comments arguing that “ginger” is not a race, therefore, those who make fun of gingers are not racist.

 Race is not an objective thing, though- in biology, it's not even considered to exist(the genetic code of all humans is too similar to break into sub-species of human). The only place that race exists is in society. Definitions and views of race can vary from culture to culture, and even from person to person; it's a more abstract issue than many of the commenters seem willing to believe.

 The national facebook event, “Kick A Ginger Day”, was created a few years before the release of CopperCab's video. So even before the hype stirred up by his video, gingers were being bashed publicly(no pun intended). We circle back to the South Park episode- this event is considered to have been inspired by it(Moore, 2). The group may not sound all that serious about this threat, but there are reports of children actually being physically bullied on the designated date(Moore, 3).

 A hate crime is defined as any sort of crime committed against an individual which is motivated by that individual's belonging to a group. By this definition, these assaults are definitely hate crimes, and the nasty comments that people have left on CopperCab's video that insult his coloring are definitely hate speech. “Ginger”, while it may not be defined as an ethnic race of its own, is still a group by the fact that members are all identified by having shared physical traits(namely, red hair and a fair, freckled complexion).

 What we can take from this cultural artifact, and the(mostly) negative response to it, is the attitude American youths have about race. CopperCab could well be a fair sample of frustrated young people that have to deal with harassment from others for their appearance.

 There are a number of other issues this simple viral video brings up- one can branch off and discuss bullying in public schools, slang language, even religion or spirituality(because of the topic of “souls” in the video). Looking closely at any popular video online can provide a lot of material for reflection. CopperCab's hit is merely one example that tells us a great deal about our own society.

Moore, Matthew. "Facebook 'Kick a Ginger' campaign prompts attacts on redheads."
The Telegraph. 22 November 2010. Web 29 September 2011.

In-Class Writing, 9-14-11

1. I think most of us read printed texts more seriously, in a more formal manner (many times because it is assigned). Digital texts, however, are read in a more casual manner; personally, I'm more likely to skim digital texts than I am to skim printed texts. This can be due to the distraction that is the internet.
2. Being digitally literate, in my opinion, is more than simply participation; it is adding to the digital realm, expressing your own thoughts and responding to those of others in an original, constructive way. Acting simply as a participant is not quite as enlightened (“FIRST!” on youtube, for example)
3. Everyday happenings on facebook do allow me to do these things. I “contribute” when I comment on the status or wall posts of another. I “distribute” when I make posts of my own. I “consume” when I use some of the website's other features, like quizzes and games.
4. Digital literacy and textual literacy both require “...the ability to analyze, evaluate, and then produce some type of communication”, as he puts it.

First Prompt

I am going into Psychology; as of now, I'd like to be a therapist.
Therapists are required to speak clearly and concisely to their clients and understand what they have to say. Developing my writing and language skills will help me in that area- I will be required to explain in plain language complex, abstract ideas like emotion.
Therapists, like the common stereotype suggests, take notes on their clients, and may make case files about them. Writing of this kind can be detail oriented, and one must be able to determine a lot from the notes they take. This is reason enough for me to want to improve a lot on my writing.