London skinheads going to the 1970 F.A.cup final,(Chelsea F.C.) the original skin's where not racist, far from it as they embraced the Jamaican reggae/rocksteady music...






http://www.musicbanter.com/members/g...970b-800wi.jpg

i'm not saying they started as racists, nor that they were all racists. fact remains that the style got taken over by racists and is seen as a racist style to the majority of people out there today.

you wonder where they all went? hmm... if i kept getting compared to a racist i'd change my style. especially a few decades later, not unlike the way hippies cut their hair and started washing with soap once they learned the hard way that free love wasn't going to feed their babies. yes, there are some diehards that want to adhere to the ideals they had in the 60s and that's their prerogative but at the same time things have moved on since then. just because it meant something once doesn't mean it still means the same thing.

seems to me there's an element of gang mentality at play between both sides of the issue. plus the whole 'but we like raggae and ska so we can't possibly be racist; those are black styles' reeks of political correctness gone awry. just like corporate photos that make sure they have the most photogenic faces of every ethnic group possible to make sure the public sees how tolerant they are.


i think the better question is, why would you want to be a skinhead in 2010?

why would you want to be a christian in 2010?

Social pressure? Can't think of any other reason that makes sense.

Yeah, I'm not really sure how listening to a particular type of music makes the case that you're not racist. I've certainly encountered plenty of white bigots in my life who loved hip-hop for example.

Who cares as long as the genre is still around?

To a degree, I agree with everything that everybody has said on this thread.

But still, as music-oriented fashions go, I like this style..
http://www.musicbanter.com/members/g...970b-800wi.jpg

and I don't think it's fair that people can't dress that way just because racists adopted elements of it.

As far as the short (not completely skinhead) hair goes and the long-coat and skinny jeans go nothing much has enormously changed, hell i was at the pub with a few looking a bit like them in a non gang-like way a few hours ago...

Yeah, I can see that, current fashion is not really so different. But roll up the pant legs to reveal boots and add 4 more people that look exactly the same and suddenly you're in a racist gang.

Then real question should be where have all the bowling lanes gone?