The majority of
skinheads are not
racists. The original skinhead subculture started in the
United Kingdom in the late 1960s and had heavy British mod and Jamaican
rude boy influences, including
love for
ska and soul
music.
Skinheads were not associated with an organized
racist political movement until the late 1970s, when a skinhead revival in the UK included a sizable neo-
nazi faction. Because of this, the mainstream media began to label the whole skinhead identity as neo-
fascist, which is not true.
Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (
SHARP) are
anti-racist skinheads who oppose white power
skinheads, neo-
fascists, and other political
racists, particularly if they identify
… Read more themselves as
skinheads.
SHARPs aim to reclaim the multicultural identity of the original
skinheads, hijacked in their views by white power
skinheads, who they sometimes deride as "boneheads". Many people may
confuse SHARP members with
racists since their appearance is superficially similar. Beyond the common opposition to
racism,
SHARP professes no political
ideology or affiliation, stressing the importance of the black Jamaican influence in the original late-1960s skinhead movement. The second
SHARP logo is based on the logo of
Trojan Records, which originally mainly released black Jamaican
ska,
rocksteady, and
reggae artists. Local
SHARP groups have spread around the world in many countries.
Red and Anarchist
Skinheads (RASH) is a left-wing
anti-racist,
anti-fascist skinhead group, formed in the
United States in 1993. The RASH values
direct action and self-defense against neo-
Nazis. The movement has its origins in the multi-ethnic roots of the skinhead cultural identity. It has multiple chapters on all continents.
RASH and
SHARP define themselves heavily on fashion,
music, and violent opposition to white supremacist organizations. Their style of dress typically incorporates Dr. Martens boots, jeans, suspenders, bomber and Harrington jackets, short hair, and clothing produced by Ben Sherman, Fred Perry, and
Lonsdale. Musically, they are typically associated with
punk,
hardcore, oi,
ska,
reggae, and two-tone
music genres.
Rude Boy (or rudie) is a slang term that originated in 1960s Jamaican street culture, and that is still used today. In the late 1970s, there was a revival in England of the terms
rude boy and rude girl, among other variations, being used to describe fans of two-tone
ska. The use of these terms moved into the more contemporary
ska-
punk movement as well. In the UK, the terms
rude boy and rude girl are used in a way similar to gangsta, yardie, or badman. In the 1960s, the Jamaican diaspora introduced
rude boy music and fashion to the UK, which influenced the mod and skinhead subcultures. In the late 1970s, the term
rude boy and
rude boy fashions came back into use after the
ska band The
… Read more Specials and their record label
2 Tone Records instigated a brief but influential
ska revival. In this spirit,
The Clash contributed "Rudie Can't Fail" on their 1979 album, London Calling.
In
Jamaica, the rude boys and rude girls were young Jamaican thugs from the ghettos, fallen into delinquency and sowing terror, some being real gangsters. In rage against the institutions, the economic fatality, they spit out their resentment of unemployment, injustices, and the immobility of capitalist
society. Quite the opposite of teddy boys. They regularly go to sound systems where they sometimes play for a living.
In Great Britain, the rough boys listen mainly to
ska music, which is characterized by groups like Madness or
The Specials, which cover certain famous tracks of Prince Buster, recorded with Two-Tone Records, the "revival" of Jamaican
ska, after the wave of the
punk movement which saw the resurgence of former Jamaican artists, like Laurel Aitken, nicknamed the godfather of
ska. They mingled with English mods in the 1960s, which gave birth to
skinheads. the skinhead movement is, therefore, in its origins and in its traditions, a mixed and multicultural movement; it is not uncommon to see black
skinheads in
1969 although many white
skinheads will become politicized on the
far right thereafter.
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