Skinheads Against Racial Prejudices
During my stay on this forum, I have been asked a few times about my avatar in connection with the name I use here. I thought I might as well share the whole story with the rest of you.
Let me start by making an assumption first: When you hear the word Skinhead, you picture yourself a mindless, bald headed guy with a Nazi symbol on his forehead, holding his arm straight in front of him in greeting, and shouting "Heil Hitler". Am I right? You might even remember the movie made about it, which I have to admit I enjoyed watching.
Well if so, I?m not surprised. That was my view too five years ago, until I met a bunch of Skinheads in a game called Unreal Tournament 2004.
To be blunt, the image that Nazi oriented Skinheads (I will refer to them as Boneheads from now on) have assumed for themselves, is actually stolen from the original skinheads in the late 1970's, with a bit of help from the media, which is always looking for the worst of the worst to give a juicy story.
Before that time, starting around the late 1960?s, the Skinhead culture emerged. Skinheads at that time were heavily influenced by British Mod and Jamaican Rude Boy. They enjoyed listening to Ska and Soul music, and were actually a very mixed crowd. Even black people could consider themselves Skinheads. In fact, the Godfather of Ska - or Boss Skinhead - Laurel Aitken is a black guy!
You see, before the whole racist thing came to be, both black and white skinheads gained a new hobby: Paki Bashing. This atrocious past time was a way to let out anger over new immigrants coming from South Asia. Randomly picking out these immigrants, they 'bashed' them, for no obvious reason at all besides boredom I reckon. This might be what caused a regression in the Skinhead culture in the following few years.
There was a skinhead revival in the late 70's in the UK, and a large part of that revival was a white nationalist Skinhead 'faction'. Perhaps because they had a big mouth and stood out more, or just because the real skinheads were boring to the media, the mainstream media focused on these Neo-Nazi's, and quickly the general association of the public with Skinheads became racism. Soon the White Power Skinheads spread to other countries, and the association of the public was fixed from that point on.
With the boneheads still pertaining to the Skinhead identity, e.g. wearing the boots and braces, the Ska loving non racist Skinheads were kind off pissed that the boneheads stole their identity. So in 1987, the SHARP - or Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice - movement was started.
SHARP was created to indicate that the Skinhead subculture was not based on racism and political extremism. Instead, SHARPs recognize the biracial origins of the skinhead subculture, and are actually opposed to neo-Nazis and other political racists, particularly if those racists identify themselves as skinheads.
These days, SHARP is not specifically an organization, but more of an individual designation. Beyond the issue of anti-racism, there is no official political ideology of SHARP.
During my stay on this forum, I have been asked a few times about my avatar in connection with the name I use here. I thought I might as well share the whole story with the rest of you.
Let me start by making an assumption first: When you hear the word Skinhead, you picture yourself a mindless, bald headed guy with a Nazi symbol on his forehead, holding his arm straight in front of him in greeting, and shouting "Heil Hitler". Am I right? You might even remember the movie made about it, which I have to admit I enjoyed watching.
Well if so, I?m not surprised. That was my view too five years ago, until I met a bunch of Skinheads in a game called Unreal Tournament 2004.
To be blunt, the image that Nazi oriented Skinheads (I will refer to them as Boneheads from now on) have assumed for themselves, is actually stolen from the original skinheads in the late 1970's, with a bit of help from the media, which is always looking for the worst of the worst to give a juicy story.
Before that time, starting around the late 1960?s, the Skinhead culture emerged. Skinheads at that time were heavily influenced by British Mod and Jamaican Rude Boy. They enjoyed listening to Ska and Soul music, and were actually a very mixed crowd. Even black people could consider themselves Skinheads. In fact, the Godfather of Ska - or Boss Skinhead - Laurel Aitken is a black guy!
You see, before the whole racist thing came to be, both black and white skinheads gained a new hobby: Paki Bashing. This atrocious past time was a way to let out anger over new immigrants coming from South Asia. Randomly picking out these immigrants, they 'bashed' them, for no obvious reason at all besides boredom I reckon. This might be what caused a regression in the Skinhead culture in the following few years.
There was a skinhead revival in the late 70's in the UK, and a large part of that revival was a white nationalist Skinhead 'faction'. Perhaps because they had a big mouth and stood out more, or just because the real skinheads were boring to the media, the mainstream media focused on these Neo-Nazi's, and quickly the general association of the public with Skinheads became racism. Soon the White Power Skinheads spread to other countries, and the association of the public was fixed from that point on.
With the boneheads still pertaining to the Skinhead identity, e.g. wearing the boots and braces, the Ska loving non racist Skinheads were kind off pissed that the boneheads stole their identity. So in 1987, the SHARP - or Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice - movement was started.
SHARP was created to indicate that the Skinhead subculture was not based on racism and political extremism. Instead, SHARPs recognize the biracial origins of the skinhead subculture, and are actually opposed to neo-Nazis and other political racists, particularly if those racists identify themselves as skinheads.
These days, SHARP is not specifically an organization, but more of an individual designation. Beyond the issue of anti-racism, there is no official political ideology of SHARP.
