Background The original
skinhead subculture started in the
United Kingdom in the late 1960s, and had heavy British
mod and
Jamaican
rude boy influences, including a love for
ska and
soul music. Although some skinheads (including
black skinheads) had engaged in "
Paki bashing" (random violence against
Pakistanis and other
South Asian immigrants), skinheads were not associated with an organized racist political movement in the 1960s. However, in the late 1970s, a skinhead revival in the UK included a sizable
white nationalist faction, involving organizations such as the
National Front,
British Movement,
Rock Against Communism and in the late eighties
Blood and Honour. Because of this, the mainstream media began to label the whole skinhead identity as
neo-fascist. This new
white power skinhead movement then spread to other countries, including the
United States.
Emergence Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice was founded in 1987 by Marcus Pacheco, a skinhead from New York City. It emerged as a response by suburban adolescents to the bigotry of the growing
white power movement in 1982. Traditional skinheads (trads) formed as a way to show that the skinhead subculture was not based on racism and political extremism. NYC
Oi! band
The Press and Jason O'Toole (vocalist of the
hardcore punk group
Life's Blood) were among SHARP's early supporters. In 1989, Roddy Moreno of the Welsh Oi! band
The Oppressed visited New York City and met a few SHARP members. On his return to the
United Kingdom, he designed a new SHARP logo based on the Trojan Reggae labels design and started promoting SHARP ideals to British skinheads. SHARP then spread throughout Europe and in other continents. In the UK and other European countries, the SHARP attitude was more based on the individual than on organized groups. In the 2000s, SHARP is thought to have become more of an individual designation than an official organization. Skinheads, especially in the
United States and
ASEAN countries like Malaysia, Singapore and
Indonesia align themselves with groups and organizations to this day. Most of these would designate themselves as
crews. Many strive for an individualist presentation with collectivist goals. As well they are generally imposed into community service, protesting, activism both violent and peaceful. SHARPs often take part of local mutual aid or activist groups such as
Black Lives Matter or
Anti-Racist Action, in which the latter was even in part founded by skinheads, the most well known of which being
Mic Crenshaw. The United States SHARPs scene has been entirely agitated by the racist overture and have resorted to all forms of anti-racism and
anti-fascism to redeem their style and culture. Violence has been rampant within either of the skinhead factions for decades now. Between fighting in clubs and venues as well as the streets, from
mosh pit shuffles to murder. The American scene has been alive and vibrant since the 1980s. Some of the most well known anti-racist skinhead crews include The Baldies Syndicate and American S.H.A.R.P (colloquially known as A.M.S). Additional groups maintain active membership globally. ,
anti-fascist and
anti-racist skinheads in
Hannover,
Germany Many people may confuse SHARP members with racists, since their appearance is superficially similar: shaved heads, denim, lace up boots,
button-down shirts and suspenders (called
braces). One glib differentiation that might be imagined to separate the two would be music interests. SHARPs may listen to culturally influenced music such as soul, reggae and ska, but also
punk,
hardcore and
Oi!. Racist skinheads would disagree with some or all of these musical choices, but may listen to punk, hardcore, Oi!, as well as
Nazi punk and
National Socialist black metal. In a deliberate attempt to reject the growing racist subculture, since the early 1980s SHARPs promulgated an anti-racist identity through small amateur
fanzine publications like
Hard As Nails. During the pre-Internet era, these publication established a network of like-minded individuals with similar musical and stylistic attitudes, who considered anti-racism an indispensable part of a living skinhead scene. Another strand of the same trad revival sought to affirm explicit links with the foundation of mod subculture and its apolitical, black-positive standards of fashion. The
scooter scene, with its runs and
Northern Soul dances, had never gone entirely away; and in the post-punk rediscovery of the past, under the influence of
The Jam and
Quadrophenia, it seemed a fresh and self-renewing direction for skinhead itself to go in. By 1989, this trad scene was ripe for the injection of a cultural influence like SHARP, much as its own appearance had been symptomatic of an American internal revolution in US skinheads' attitudes to race and their own subculture. An outgrowth of SHARP,
Red and Anarchist Skinheads (RASH), formed in the United States in 1993 against anti-gay sentiment in the non-racist skinhead community. == Image ==