One of you phoned me, all out of breath, to say: “Have you heard? Prince Harry said racist things about BROWN people! This is so Sepia Mutiny. Are you going to blog it? Are you? Are you? Because, like, if you do? I don’t want credit, but I can’t WAIT until SM covers it. Okay? So, are you blogging it? When?”
Well…how ‘bout now, you not-annoying-at-all badger.
The video embedded above features Prince Harry disparaging darkies, his Grandmother and perhaps Canadians, as well— I couldn’t tell at times, with his accent. Well, that and a lot of people seem to insult Canadians (why?), so it seems like a safe assumption. The footage commences with time spent in an airport, waiting for a flight to the former British colony of Cyprus; after some editing, Harry is shown later on, discussing night maneuvers in Cyprus, as well as his pubes.
Speaking of those, they are what inspired the title of this post. In my title, I use the word “Ginger”, to refer to an infamous South Park episode which can help us understand why the Prince did what he did; perhaps by understanding, we may gain closure, and move on.
I had initially typed, “What next? Water is wet?” in the little Movable Type box before going the Ginger route. I only reveal this because I was really torn about which title to use. Obviously, South Park beats logic and sarcasm, every time. And for good reason, at least in this case.
Listening to Eric Cartman is especially instructive when trying to pick up the pieces after a traumatic video like the one above. Many people are asking themselves, why would Prince Harry SAY such a thing? Because water is wet? Trolls like to upset people? It’s just the way things are?
Or…is there something…more sinister…behind that pale skin and insolent mouth?
In a class presentation, Cartman argues that “Gingers” - people with red hair, freckles, and pale skin - are disgusting and are inherently evil, have no souls, and are unable to walk around during the day because of this...
Cartman stands up for himself and uses Biblical references (alleging that “Judas was a Ginger,”) and, as a result, Cartman’s speech causes a new-found prejudice towards Ginger kids in the school: Now all the Ginger kids are treated as outcasts and forced to eat in the hallway rather than the cafeteria. The other three members of the gang agree that they really need to teach Cartman a lesson. [wiki]
Wait, there’s an almost non-existent sepia connection coming up next:
In order to teach Cartman a lesson Kyle, Stan and Kenny sneak into Cartman’s room at night and use makeup to make his skin pale, dye his hair red and put Henna tattoos of freckles on his face. Cartman wakes up in the morning and finds that he has been turned into a Gingerkid. [wiki]
If you want to see the entire, relatively commercial-free, 21-minute long episode via Comedy Central, go here. It didn’t work on my Mac via Firefox (no volume, for some reason), but it played just fine with Safari. If you do watch, you’ll experience the same epiphany which I did. Cartman leads us in to the terrifying mind of a ginger, and reveals their true nature when he says:
We must view the rest of the world as the low-life dark-skinned rats that they are.
Is it really shocking then, that the spare heir sees those who would save his ginger kundi in combat as “Pakis” and “towel-heads”? No, mutineers, it is not. Let’s save our outrage for something we might have a chance to change; to aim it at Gingers is a waste of our precious time.
