Do the worm on Necropolis …
OK, question about a sub-set: Why are skinheads (negatively) associated with Ska?
Because that’s where the whole skinhead scene began. Ska was the music the Jamacians brought with them to the lower-class areas of London when they immigrated to the UK looking for work. Working-class Brits and the immigrants merged their cultures into a diverse music scene where ska and pub rock formed a counterpoint to the more pop-oriented genres of the early-mid 1960s. The skinhead scene itself didn’t become well-defined until 1969, but that is where it came from.
You’re in BC, eh? This conference wasn’t by any chance in 1996, was it?
Daniel
We used to call it slam dancing, you whippersnapper!
Dang kids today and their ‘moshy pits’.
vl_mungo & Larry Borgia’s posts covered it all, but I wanted to interject anyway - yeah packs of skinheads would go to our shows and wait to beat us up - and outsiders could lump us in with the nazis because punk was a subculture they knew nothing about.
Walking down Grandville in the 80’s in Vancouver, or 8th Ave in Calgary without being in a big group of punks was an invite for a skinhead beating.
And yeah - Moshing. … Uggh - never moshed once in my life - we called it Slam Dancing.
And regarding laces - it was insane - every color of laces had a meaning at one time - and that meaning differed from city to city - the craziest one is that red laces tied one way was nazi skin, and red laces tied another way was communist punk. And green laces could be ALF (animal liberation front & vegan punk) or ACAB (all cops are bastards) - lacism was stupid!
My memory is kinda hazy about those days, but I’m sure it wasn’t '96… it would have been somewhere between '89 - '91.
Nazis are still a factor. When I was a teen in the mid-nineties, a prominent and rather inoffensive local music organizer had his back broken by nazis for no good reason outside of the club he used to run one night. That sort of thing doesn’t spread much goodwill.
Even though it is largely a white movement, punks of all stripes (including the many, many communist/socialist punks…anarchy is not a universal punk value) are very strongly against racism and for social justice. Punk has evolved a long ways from general anger and disaffection and now it is quite politcal and dedicated to a better, most likely liberal, world. I remember sitting around in high school one day and hearing some punk rockers walk by saying:
“Let’s go hang with Rich”
“I hear Rich is a racist”
“Oh, yeah? Let’s find him and beat him up.”
It especially irks punk rockers to be mistaken for racists. One of the reasons why “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” patches and the like are so popular is that it lets anyone seeing you know you arn’t a racist.
I think I’ve heard that exact same conversation.
Although the scene I was in was largely white scene - it was quite racely diverse. In our scene were Native, Asian, Indian and Black people too.
When a girl we knew started dating a Nazi and ended up converted to hate - it was quite the betrayal - but when they start feeding lines like: “I don’t believe white people are better, just that races shouldn’t mix” - how can you not be bothered them?
To expound further on what Derleth said:
Back in the early to mid sixties, there were mods. They were working class British guys (and gals) who bought fancy clothes, followed a certain style, rode around on variously modified Vespas and Lambrettas, got in fights with rockers (a subculture that started in the mid fifties as the teddy boys), popped amphetamines, and listened to American R&B and soul music. Bands such as the Who and the Kinks came out of this scene.
Starting in the mid-sixties, some of them started dressing a bit less fancy, as the style started to get more outlandish with it’s ruffles and paisly. Also, they cut their hair shorter, listen to Jamaican music (and hang out at the West Indian dance clubs), and prefer beer to amphetamines. This was at first called “hard mod” style, but by 1969 was definately skinhead style, to the extent that Jamaican bands were recording albums such as Skinhead Moonstomp for their skinhead audience. By 1973 or so, this had largely died out. Both mods and skinheads had a reputation for violence, that was certainly played up by the press.
Years later, when punk music started getting popular in '76, some people started reviving skinhead style. Compared with the strident politics and art-school imagery of the early punks, skinheads favored a more working-class ethic and style. As this became popular, neo-nazi groups started to actively recruit skinheads. Skrewdriver, at the time a popular skinhead band that had broken up, was re-formed by its lead singer, Ian Stuart, as an openly racist band. Certainly this new menace was latched on to by the media, and the widening perception of all skinheads as neo-nazis was increasingly the truth.
I think groups like SHARP got started around the mid-eighties. These days, around here at least, there are plenty of skinheads that seem to draw from any one or more of all the various incarnations over the life of skinheadism. Any ska or rocksteady show around here is likely to have several skinheads in attendance. I know there are racists around as well, but these days they seem to keep to themselves.
We hate nazis, because a lot of stupid nazi assholes back in the 70s and 80s liked our angry music and started calling themselves punks and then trying to spread bull ideals like “white pride” and “race purity.”
So then real punks walk down the street and people want to call them racist nazis, when most of us are far from it.
You could similarly compare why goths hate emos, but it’s much, much more political than that, and much much more aggravating.
I. Hate. Nazis. I hate white supremacists with potentially more passion than they hate minorities. It’s sickening to even comprehend the idea that some ignorant douchebags think we’d be better off if more than half the population of the earth was wiped out for no other reason than the amount of melanin in their skin.
The only thing, if anything, humanity should be allowed to “breed out” is stupidity. Nazis are an epitome of stupid.
Zombie Punks fuck off!
That’d be the Pogo right there son. [/Foghorn Leghorn] (who does sport an impressive Mohawk)
I wouldn’t say punk is exclusionary racially. You kind of have to step away from mainstream culture if you go punk, and that’s a move that will appeal to a certain segment of every population.
I think that constitutes enough of a vague and flimsy reason to throw in gratuitous links to a very famous Black punk band, Bad Brains, (probably NSFW) and my favorite Latino punk band, La Plebe.
I had a friend who was beaten to death by nazi skinheads at his own party one night. His name was Steve; he had a cat named Flatbush who would walk with him on a leash. I miss him. My friend Rad Rob got beat pretty bad trying to save him.
People don’t become nazis if they’re peaceful, loving, and tolerant. Those who do are looking for permission to be haters.
Evelyone’s a rittre bit lacist…
I know this thread is zombified so it’s worth mentioning the film This is England, which has come out since the original thread was started and which portrays the split in skinhead groups.
It’s not just any Nazi, it’s Illinois Nazis.
“Gaywads, Dorkwads Sign Historic Wad Accord” 
http://www.theonion.com/articles/gaywads-dorkwads-sign-historic-wad-accord,668/
I thought Nazi’s were punks. 
The only good Nazi is a grammar Nazi.
Speaking of which, you didn’t need that apostrophe.
I love the Bad Brains reference in a zombie thread. Awesome band, btw…
Punk is very political, they also love violence. What better outlet is there for a violent political movement then curb-stomping skin heads?