fill me in

[dean]

hey all, a friend of mine sent me a link to this site b/c I was curious about his lifestyle. how does all of this work? what is a skinhead exactly? there are non-racist skinheads? don't the two types get confused often, and, if so, why do they look the same? is the essential connection between all the different types, does it have to do with being white?
Me, I'm not interested at all personally in skin colours - hell, you're born with'em, nuthin you can do about that, but I would like to know why people dress like skinheads when they aren't racist.
OK, Dean

[monsters]

It's a long read, enjoy.

www.tradskin.org/faq.html

[dean]

ok... so I've been reading that site and... I still don't get it. What I don't get is... aren't people too old to be dressing up and talking about how good things were in the past? bear in mind that this is just my opinion, but i'm trying to understand why skinheads are still around. what I mean is... aren't there many many more important things to be concerned about today?
i've worked just about every shite job known to mankind and I sure as hell am not proud of it. I'm not working class b/c i think it's roots or anything... i just need the jobs. i mean, whatever, i'm not trying to judge anyone's lifestyle, but i still think i can question some aspects of it.
all skins i've talked to tell me that they secretly like the fact that people get intimidated by them on the street, even if they mean them no harm. what's the value in that? really? is that what it all amounts to? cause tell me that - racist or not - if you're a skin with a crossed-baseball bat t-shirt on, people are gonna move outta the way when you walk by. so is it really just for the intimidation?
crap, i'm blowing smoke here, but i can't make heads or tails of it. i may be looking at the entire culture from the wrong angle, or coming at it from the wrong perspective, but i just can't see the forest for the trees, you know.

[chris]

Its like this. You like the music, you like the people, you like the brotherhood so you get into the scene. You dress the part cause you liek the culture. Yeah sometimes it's about looking tough or w/e. But it's also about being tough, skinhead culture is notorious for violence, no matter what side of the political spectrum. It's about being clean-cut, and working class. It's nothing deeper than that, it's a subculture, music, fashion, common lifestyle trends etc. Just like punks, mods, hippies, skateboarders, thugs etc. All kinds of people get into all kinds of different cultures which have certain traits associated with them.

[dean]

Ha! That is the most straight-forward and rational response I've yet heard. Good on you! I've never been able to stick with a 'scene' myself for very long and racists just seem retarded to me, so I've always harboured a deep suspicion against all skinheads (for the unfortunate reputation that gets tagged along with them) without really knowing who and what they are.

[roddy]

Oi! Dean.
I've posted this elsewhere but I'll post it again just for you:

SKINHEAD EVOLUTION (Birth of a Hooligan).

The story begins in the mid sixties with the Mods.
Mods had two distinct styles.There was your immaculately dressed mods (soft mods) with their Italian suits and hand made shoes,and then there was your working class mods (hard mods) with their Parkers,Levis and suede boots.Naturally styles crossed over and the hard mods would smarten up for clubbing while the self proclaimed elite would dress down for confrontatians with the ‘grease’,biker gangs in leathers.
The music they listened to included Soul music and Ska.They also listened to bands like The Who,The Small Faces and The Kinks but it was the sounds coming from the black ghettos of Jamaica and the USA that really set the scene.Along with the music came the clothes,Levi Sta Prest pants,Ben Sherman shirts,white socks,and Pork Pie hats,from the USA via Jamaica and brought to the UK by Jamaican migrants coming to work here.
As the sixties wore on the mods split into two distinct factions.
The peacock fashion ‘soft’ mods were slowly evolving into hippies with long hair,floral shirts and flaired pants,peacing out on The Who's Magic Bus and tripping out on acid. As a reaction against all this hippy shit the hard mods got even harder and evolved into Skinheads.
By the end of 1968 Skinhead had exploded all over the country
and working class kids everywhere were cropping their hair and puting on their boots ‘n’ bracers.For these kids off the council estates ‘hate and war’ sounded better then ‘peace and love’.
By 1969 The hard mods that gave birth to skinhead were growing up and moving on leaving the field clear for young Skinheads to run amok.Aggro at the football became a weekly ritual and the ‘Bootboys’ were at the forefront.It wasn’t all just Aggro though.Come the night and it was Sta Prest,brogues and a Crombie coat,a few flaggons of Cider,then up to the youth club to try and pull a bird.Birds,Bovver and Booze,what more could a young hooligan want. The Jamaican music the Mods had listened to carried through and the Skinheads took it as their own.It’s easy to see why with songs about Rude Boys and Gangsters,along with Rude Reggae like Prince Busters ‘Big 5’ and Max Romeo’s ‘Wet Dream’.It was also a million miles away from the acid induced ‘freak’ music the hippys were into.In response to the Skinheads love of Reggae Jamaican artists recorded music especially for them, Symarips ‘Skinhead Moonstomp’ being the most widely recognised,and the term Skinhead Reggae was born.
Politics and patriotism meant nothing and the few black Skinheads around mixed freely with white mates.Yes there was the odd incident of "Paki and Queer bashing",usually by wankers,but this would be blown up by the media to give a false impression.Most Skinheads would rather fight with other gangs,I mean there's nothing hard about slapping someone who don't wanna know.
Anyway, that's how it was for me and my mates.In 1969 I was a 12 year old kid living in Cardiff and thinking I was invincible, now I'm 48 and proud to say I'm still a skinhead.
Like young Watford John once said,"For some of us it really is a way of life".
Roddy Moreno 2004.