Skinheads Unite Against Racial Prejudice
Neo-Nazi Groups Hold No Monopoly on Skinhead Subculture
Dec 16, 2008
In 1987, Marcus Pacheco founded the group Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP). In the common vernacular, the term "skinhead" is widely considered synonymous with extreme racism. In light of that fact, the essential mission of SHARP might seem as puzzling as their name seems oxymoronic.
The Skinhead Subculture
Born in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, the skinhead movement was a hardcore subculture with origins somewhat similar to that of punk. It grew from the roots of mod kids, working-class youth who rejected what they viewed as the bourgeois complacency of their contemporaries, which was characterized by the hippie culture that burgeoned after World War Two.
Ironically, the first skinheads were not only accepting of non-Anglo races, but rushed to embrace the artistic contributions of a variety of cultures, specifically Jamaican, Latin, and African American, and held particular appreciation for musicians of such origins. Ska, punk rock, and rocksteady were integral to the set of fashion and musical sensibilities that helped grow the movement.
Also typical of early skinhead culture was a resistance to alignment with divisive politics. Being apolitical was a loose tenet of their unspoken law. It did not take long for such unification to splinter.
Changes in The Movement
Very quickly, within the first decade of the rise of skinhead culture, the tenor of the movement began to change drastically. Members became vocal about their now highly-politicized beliefs. As skinheads increasingly identified themselves as uniquely enlightened arbiters of political views, they began to diverge into camps that sought out "the other" for persecution.
Emigrating Pakistani and Asian peoples were targeted by skinheads during the 1960s and 70s. Mostly comprised of working-class young people, the skinhead movement began to place blame on foreign immigrants when unemployment rates rose. Such thinking gave way to openly racist activities on the parts of groups calling themselves skinheads, and the unfortunate, but logical progression of that thinking led to neo-Nazi organizations.
The Dog Days of Dogma
While some argue that the neo-Nazi branch of the skinhead movement is still at its zenith today, evidence to the contrary is readily visible. The American Civil Rights Movement spent decades coming to fruition, but it is arguably taking firm hold of society at all levels--even in the wayward branches of skinhead culture. Skinhead groups such as The Minneapolis Baldies, SHARP, and Anti-Racist Action (ACT), struggle today to extricate the term "skinhead" from its association with racism and violence.
The number of members for these outsider organizations rebelling against the vicious dogma of neo-nazism and old-fashioned racism is relatively unknown. Leaders of groups like Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice tend to lie low and avoid the inevitable reprecussions their peaceful dissent could earn them. On the other hand, white power groups and neo-Nazi organizations across the United States and the world continue to encourage membership and flaunt the swelling of their numbers, however modest, at every available opportunity.
