M.I.A’s video for “Born Free” is notable for so many things—for one, it hybrids Robert Capa’s photography, Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point, and Brian DePalma’s The Fury. Or the kinetic handheld zooms that exude a ‘70s vintage that recalls the work of director Romain Gavras’ father, the iconoclastic film director Costas Gavras. Or the song’s simultaneous evoking of Atari Teenage Riot, X-Ray Spex, and Suicide (whose “Ghost Rider,” itself both a polemic against and celebration of America, is memorably sampled). Okay, that’s not really why people are talking about it. Okay, “Born Free” has proven controversial already, largely due to its graphic nudity and limb-exploding violence. But where it proves truly incisive and genius is in how it plays on societal prejudices against redheads.

Redheads, you say? Yes, redheads, gingers, and so forth. Copper hair has long been unfairly associated with bad tempers, sexual deviance, poor quality genetic stock and geekiness (in the U.K., a “ginger minger” is a socially inept, not-too-swift uber-nerd); the combination of green eyes and a Titian mane was said to be the mark of a werewolf or vampire! (I, the author, have both red hair and green eyes—proceed at your own risk.) Through history, redheads have been burned as witches. A Canadian teen even started a Facebook group promoting “Kick A Ginger Day”, itself inspired by, naturally, a South Park episode (Yes, the majority of these facts have been bogarted from Wikipedia—but they’re true!)

Indeed, gingerphobia indeed has been having a strange upsurge of late. In addition to M.I.A’s video, Newish Pitchfork-anointed indie rockers Twin Sister have a lyric that states “ginger kids can be very violent.” Ouch! Noted pacifist Noel Gallagher, meanwhile, recently dissed Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine for the color of her hair: “I’m not having someone with ginger hair making music. I’m not going down that road,” he noted with great sensitivity. (The erstwhile Oasis singer may reconsider getting drunk in a Scottish bar anytime soon—while redheads make up only one percent of the world’s population, they verge on thirty percent in Scotland).

It’s a real prejudice, yet compared to the experiences of other marginalized ethnic and political groups, it seems kinda lame. Therefore M.I.A’s genius: by highlighting prejudice against the whitest people in the world, the “Born Free” video is, ya know, drawing attention to the unfairness of prejudice in general. I know—heavy; okay, maybe it’s not so subtle—even the kid that gets his blown off in the clip gets the symbolism. Now, if only she’d cast Flying Tomato Shaun White as the rebel redheads’ ringleader, and maybe Karen Elson in a Linda Hamilton/Terminator type role, then maybe the crimson revolution would be televised after all…