I just posted a long comment about the character Ginger Blue and the song/chorus "Walk Chalk Ginger Blue" in this mudcat thread:

thread.cfm?threadid=47413&messages=5#3231649

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Charlie, with regard to your question "Why ginger", as one answer I'd like to suggest this site:

http://anakhaircolorcorner.blogspot.com/2009/06/ginger-hair.html Hair Color Corner; Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Ginger Hair Color

Here's an excerpt from that site:

"According to popular hair dressers, ginger hair color is one of the most misunderstood shades and often make the mistake is made of thinking that the client wanted ginger while in fact they wanted either reddish, copper, of even strawberry blonde hair colors. When you look at redhead children we actually see a ginger head, ginger is the balance between, orange and gold (yellow) with a hue of brown and when you are formulating split your orange and gold's equally and add a bite of brown, now you have ginger."

-snip-

Also, Charlie (and others) may I suggest this website:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=redbone

I refer you to urban dictionary because I believe that the term and name "ginger" as in "Ginger Blue" is similar if not equivalent to term "redbone". "Redbone" is still used but I believe that "ginger" as a referent for a certain complexioned Black person has long been retired. Also note the shortened version of "redbone" -Red- as in Tampa Red and Detroit Red (to cite two famous Black men, and Red Skelton, to cite a famous White man).

Here are two definitions sent in by readers of that site and voted on for accuracy or popularity by site visitors:

3. redbone

495 up, 236 down

"A specific brown-to-reddish skinned people of Louisiana with dark eyes and straight, frizzy or curly hair. They are often thought of as a tri-racial people of Native American, African and some form of Eastern or Western European heritage. Redbones are not neccesarily Creole or Cajun--they traditionally speak English.

The redbone lived in the Louisiana bayou his whole life."

-jennifer Oct 20, 2004

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5. Redbone

131 up, 67 down

"Redbone is a person with red undertones in their skin. A person who is a yellow bone has yellow undertones in their skin. If you look closely at their skin you can see the differences.
A redbone can be a light-skinned african american or a person of mixed races meaning they have African American in them...mixed with other's ethnic races!
Redbone Example: Rachel True (Actress:Mona from Half and Half)
Yellow Bone Example: Faith Evans (R&B Singer)"
-Mika7 Jan 7, 2009


-snip-

stallion, thank you for your compliment. I have the time to do online research and I'm interested in African American, African, and African Diaspora subjects (as well as other subjects). Much of what I learned about online research I credit to many persons on this forum, including Malcolm Douglas. I certainly don't think anyone could fill his shoes, but we can learn from his example.

That said, I seldom post on mudcat now because I'm wary (and weary) of some aspects of this forum as my archived posts attest to.

Best wishes,

Azizi Powell