Premise idea

What would the world be like if the issue with skin color was replaced with an issue about some other biological thing...like hair color?

Basically what if we lived in a world wear "race' was determined by hair color and not skin?

What reason would people have for making this definition?

The world is divided into different groups based on whether they have blonde, brown, red and black hair. Hair dye is looked down upon and outlawed for awhile I'd imagine.

(A note: even permanent hair dye isn't permanent you still have to redo it every few months. I've tried. My hair was red for like half a year before it started eating too much into my funds and I didn't want to bother with it anymore.)

How would civil right problems be different. How would they be similar?

Help with fleshing this idea out for a serious story?

edited 3rd Jul '10 9:39:18 PM by JewelyJ

Shaving your head would certainly take on different connotations.

And I assume the type of hair (wavy, curly, etc.) would start to become like 'subcultures.'

It would be easy enough to justify. After all, Hitler's idea for a perfect race involved blonde hair.

Plus, there are already a number of stereotypes involving hair colors. For example, blondes are airheads, and redheads are fiery or hot tempered. There may even be others I'm not aware of.

And what would wearing a hat symbolize in this world? That they're ashamed of their haircolor? Would bad hair days be even more horrible than they are now? Would wearing a wig of a different hair color be considered in bad taste, such as white people wearing black face make up in this society?

And which hair color would be the dominant hair color? I'm thinking black, since it appears to be the most common.

What happens when that hair grays and eventually turns white? How would they see those who are naturally bald?

I expect that people who have had different hair colors might begin to put aside old differences after nature starts hiding their original hair color.

Hair lenght might also become an issue. Longer hair may equal more reputation perceived "strenght" or social rank...

Adding to ideas already proposed: Changing the hair color through artificial means would become a taboo, there can even be some kind of extremist movement that actively seeks and attack those who dare doing it on purpose.

edited 4th Jul '10 8:25:24 AM by Vexelius

If changing hair colour is taboo, would Michael Jackson have attempted it anyway?

And I have no idea how you'd work anything related to this into a story, but "ginger" is an anagram of a notorious racial slur...

@Dinsdale

Autopsy shows micheal Jackson actually had a rare skin disorder, it started on his hand which is why he wore one glove.

Shaving facial or body hair might be a volatile action too.

So, what colour would everyone's skin be? The same, or different? Realistic or fantastic?

Also, which hair colours would be considered "superior", and which inferior?

Interestingly, redheads apparently cope with pain better than other people, so maybe there would be various hair-colour-restricted abilities? (Or stereotypes/myths of the former, so there could be a blackmarket of medicines made from ground-up redheads, or something gruesome like that...)