Skinhead Subculture

The Skinhead culture has a variety of subcultures within the culture itself due to the evolution and separation of different groups of skinheads. The Skinhead subculture originated in the mid to late sixties and was created by the working class community that had a strong fondness for fashion and music. The original Skinheads enjoyed listening to soul, ska, bluebeat, and rocksteady music. They were also highly influenced by the Jamaican Rude Boy subculture, Reggae, and Rastafarianism.

From this original subculture many other styles and forms of Skinhead subcultures sprouted from this. Regardless of most of them have similar styles to you and me, subtle differences separate the groups. Despite their similar styles they can have vastly diverse beliefs and values.

I am going to focus on a particular group of Skinheads called “SHARP” which stands for Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice. SHARP originated in New York in 1987 by Marcus Pacheco to demonstrate that the skinhead subculture was not based on racist beliefs or political extremism.

The SHARP subculture was spread to the UK because of a visit by a member of the band The Oppressed who then began to support the SHARP morals to British skinheads. The SHARP subculture was then spread throughout Europe but took on a stance that was more founded upon the individual rather than the group as a whole.

The core values and beliefs that the SHARP skinheads hold is a strong hatred for Nazism and Communism. They also embrace much value in the working class people, since they are from the working class community. But the main belief that unites all SHARP skinheads is the strong opposition to racism.

The non-material culture that makes the SHARP skinheads distinct form the mainstream culture is their strong beliefs in the anti-communism and anti-racist beliefs. The SHARPs have almost a extreme position against racism which makes them stand out in the fight against racism around the world.

Some of the traditions or customs that the SHARP skinheads hold is the strong value in the working class people and members that are hard working. The symbols that certain versions of the SHARP skinheads wear proudly is a SHARP patch which distinguishes the anti-racist skinheads from racist skinheads. Also frequent gang wars between SHARP members and members of Nazi or racist skinheads are also a common way that the skinheads show their dominance and give themselves their own identity.

The SHARP skinheads’ mores involve pride in being a working class citizen. There is often a difference between the amounts of hard work you do and how your status is in the SHARP group. There is a large quantity of pride held in this belief. Depending on the type or extremeness level of a particular SHARP group associating with other groups of skinheads is either acceptable or offensive. Also punk kids who might want to impersonate styles of even wear the same patch as the SHARPs is highly frowned upon.

Mostly in Europe do the SHARP skinheads use the media to perpetuate their beliefs such as having interviews showed on major television channels and debates between different groups of skinheads or other social activists. SHARP skinheads can be very political and use T.V., radio, and the internet to facilitate their beliefs and ideals.

A typical member of the SHARP skinheads is apart of the working class as