MovieChat Forums > SLC Punk! (1999) Discussion > Skinheads

Skinheads

posted 16 years ago by gonzoforsherriff
37 replies | jump to latest

I made a topic a while back concerning my distaste for the broad generalization of skinheads in this film a while ago, but I guess that it got pushed out. Well I am writing another one, because I still find it rather regrettable that this film, wherein tries to explain punk rock so meticulously, failed miserably at discerning the fact that there are two main types of skinheads which are nazi skins and trad skins. Of course there are also s.h.a.r.p. skins, red skins, punk skins, but for the most part there is mainly Trad (traditional) skinheads, and Nazi skinheads

As so many films and people have done before, this film shows or at least inadvertanly shows that most skinheads, if not all skinheads are Nazis. This is completely untrue, and is a rather sadly the norm for most people to accept as truth because no one really takes the time to have arguments over what it is to be a true skin or not. When people see skinheads they automatically see a racist, which is in itself a bit of racism I think.

If people where to take the time to delve into the history of skinheads they would easlily find out that skinheads stem back to mods, mods stem back to rude boys, and rude boys were a direct result of rastafarians and the reggae culture and that music that is played and loved in the skinhead scene aside from OI! is ska, which is of course a variation of reggae. Reggae is also a music that is loved by skinheads, and a lot of the original skinheads were primarily black.

Perhaps it is a stupid thing to get so worked up over, but for trad skins like myself, who have had to physically defend themselves from ignorant people who do not know that there is a difference between racist skins and non racist skins, another film which is some what popular amongst the youth, it just prepetuates a cycle of misunderstanding and ignorance that serves no good to anyone.

[–] xxxero 16 years ago

i did not know that. thanks for the info.

------------
my revenge on you will not kill you. it will make you want to kill yourself.

[–] gonzoforsherriff 16 years ago

No worries. So long as someone takes notice and understands what I am saying then I have done my work.

[–] gonzoforsherriff 16 years ago

*Bump

[–] teryolaw 16 years ago

I understand what you mean. At first i thought that skinheads were nazis as well but then i learned a bit more about the whole thing and i have a friend whos a skin.

So far from what i have understood being a skinhead couldnt have *beep* less to do with politics. Its about having good friends, going to shows and getting wasted. Hah. Im not saying thats all its about but hell, its more about that then politics at least.
People do have a very negative image of skinheads and thats sad.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gonzoforsherriff 16 years ago

I'm curious how the hatred of skinheads has anything at all to do with being a "true punk". The last time I checked skins and punks were cool with each other. Besides which, punk rock isn't at all in the least about hatred. Adopting a uniform attitude simply makes you a drone and points out in undeniable light that you are in fact a fake.

[–] tawdry_hepburn 16 years ago

Here's the thing...I'm a (technically) Jewish kid. I've almost been murdered by Nazi Skinheads twice. There are a lot of Nazi's in my part of town. I fully understand where Skins came from, but it's still hard to respect a kid for being a skin these days because of the bs racism that is attached to the look.

Yeah, I know why the mods and old skins had tight jeans, steal toes, and shaved heads. It's a factory worker thing. But today, the look says one thing, NAZI. I don't care if it can mean something else, the scene has been so compromised that I don't think it's salvagable.

as a sidenote, I'm named after Thompson.

,Said the Shotgun to the Head--
Saul Williams

[–] gonzoforsherriff 16 years ago

I don't disrespect your opinion, in point of fact I fully agree with you, I posted this just so people could be let in on the facts. I myself have been subject to being involved in fights with people who made the mistake that I was a nazi a couple of which wherein I had to go to the emergency room. I got tired of the bullsh-t attatched with being a skin and I no longer shave my head or wear my boots and braces but I am still a skin at heart.

And you have very cool parents by the way! haha

[–] Ferago 16 years ago

I can't think of any movie that has skinheads that aren't nazis. Too bad such a dumb generalization exists. Also now that I think about it, it's strange that this movie didn't deal with the topic at all.

[–] gonzoforsherriff 16 years ago

Well, it's not as thought this was a movie about skinheads, so I suppose that it is slightly forgivable that there was no explanation into the differences in skinheads, but still... the common generalzation is the only thing that slightly irritated me about this film. Skinheads have more to do with ska and reggae than with nazism, and it really bothers me that you can't walk around and be a skin without getting looks like you're in a f-cking klansmen robe!

[–] pressganged 16 years ago

So true!

My hometown has a pretty healthy skinhead scene... Sometimes neonazis come to check out the shows and they immediately get ousted. This one time a gang of nazi skinheads came in from out of town and threw a moltov cocktail through some guy's window. We don't have very many neonazis that live in our town but these few guys that don't even live there gave the whole scene a bad name...

You should check out This Is England if you haven't already...

...
voilà pourquoi

[–] gonzoforsherriff 16 years ago

Cheers man. Good to know that people still read my posts when I get the time or the interest to do one. I have seen "This is England" before, but thank you for the reccomendations. Good film and it has it's moments that I really like.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] inanhaze 16 years ago

This is England is about skins in England just as White Power *beep* took over the movement.

[–] gonzoforsherriff 16 years ago

Yea, I own it and do enjoy to watch it from time to time.

[–] praxis1966-1 15 years ago

//I can't think of any movie that has skinheads that aren't nazis.//

This is England is the only one I know of.

[–] DethBeLL 16 years ago

oki was at a concert moshing it up and a bunch of skinheads were too and htye were breaking jaws and beating on little kids, but they all had eachothers back so no one messed with them, one of them even walked right up to me and grabbed my tit, i was like 'hey' and he was like 'what are u gonna do', so they are pretty evil

-----Amanda Dethbell

[–] gonzoforsherriff 16 years ago

No....... a--holes that go around bashing people for no reason and who sexually assault women are evil... SKINHEADS are not!

[–] FeistyCadavr 15 years ago

This movie was based in 1985. To my knowledge there were few of those anti-fascist skinheads, and the ones there were weren't organized at the time. The skins depicited in this movie were also Neo-Nazi skins obviously as they wore swastika patches on their arms, thus it was OK to generalize this particular group. Why would they have to acknowledge anti-facist Skins in this film? Were you offended? Cry me an ocean. =/

[–] gonzoforsherriff 15 years ago

Well if you took the time to read my original post, which you obviously didn't, anti-facist skins have been around since the 60's retard, it was around the mid 80's that it started to go extreme right-wing. And furthermore, I don't have to justify what I post to anyone, least of all you.

[–] FeistyCadavr 15 years ago

Did I say (non racist) skinheads didn't exist before the 80s? No I don't think I did. I said that there weren't many (if any) anti-fascist GROUPS in this decade. Yes there were non racist skins, hell there were Skinhead Punks, but no organized groups. For example ANTIFA. So I think you could understand why they wouldn't acknowledge individuals, when this movie based itself around sub-groups of people/lifestyles.

-See What I See

[–] Modchic84 15 years ago

hey sorry but just to change the subject a bit, the original poster said skins come from mods and mods come from rude boys.... mods were before rude boys i believe.... just to add that in :D

http://www.myspace.com/hollybetheightyfour

[–] gonzoforsherriff 15 years ago

Well thanks for the info, but rude boys were the precursor to the mod movement. The term for the ska rude boy got popularized later on, but they were there from the beginning and before it.

[–] Modchic84 15 years ago

Oh wow thanks, you learn something new every day!

http://www.myspace.com/hollybetheightyfour

[–] gonzoforsherriff 15 years ago

Prior to the 80's there wasn't any need for anti-facist groups. S.H.A.R.P. started up in the late 80's though.

[–] stalkingvengeance 15 years ago

In my view, having been a bonehead years ago, any politics whether it be communist, fascist, anti-fascist, none of it belongs in the subculture. SHARPs are getting as bad as the boneheads. They won't get any power, so let them be full of hate all their lives and do their own thing as long as they don't infringe on the rights of others of course.

I hate being labelled as a SHARP, Redskin, or nazi, it's all *beep* *beep* these political groups and gangs.

[–] gonzoforsherriff 15 years ago

I agree. I don't particularly like S.H.A.R.P.'s because they go so out of their way to show that they're not racist, that they're always being obnoxious to the point that they're nearly just as bad as nazi's. When any lifestyle has so many subdivisions that it's ridiculous, it's time to get out.

[–] Don_Lephtie 15 years ago

I'm pretty sure there's a non-nazi skin in the movie "suburbia" but that is based on his appearance and it is never specified through dialogue. Skinheads, originally, weren't supposed to be political at all, the band the four skins I believe condemned nazi bands like screwdriver for being political. (not necessarily nazi)

But the problem is, although the skinhead movement started out based on working class ska kids, etc, the movement was high jacked just like the communist movement was high jacked by Stalin and high jackers give movements bad names, therefore, the best thing to do I think is let the movement die and move on. It's just not worth trying to hold up an image that's been spoiled. Like if someone follows Marx people from ex-communist countries that hated Stalin will call you a Stalinist just like if you're a skinhead you'll be called a Nazi. It's happened with several different things as well. Obviously the skinhead movement wasn't strong enough to stop Nazi's from infiltrating them as communism wasn't strong enough to prevent stalin and lenin from infiltrating it. The same thing happened with Hip Hop, it got highjacked by wannabe thugs. Even punk rock is getting highjacked right now by avril levigne and hot topic. That's why trying to associate yourself with a scene is just stupid in my opinion, it will just change and when your associated with anything, you will most definitely be generalized, that seems to be a universal rule.

[–] praxis1966-1 14 years ago

//Prior to the 80's there wasn't any need for anti-facist groups. S.H.A.R.P. started up in the late 80's though.//

I love it when people talk out of their hoo-hah's about things they don't understand. If what you say is true, how do you explain the RAF and the June 2nd Movement? Both of those were militant left-wing organizations of the 60s and 70s in West Germany whose original grievance was that ex-Nazi officials were still in office at all levels of the government. That's to say nothing of the Yippies, the Weather Underground, the Red Brigades, or the SLA. I'm not saying that those organisations had anything to do with skinheads (their members were hippies, by and large), but they were definately militant AND anti-fasc.

The difference is that where the groups I mentioned above were either Marxist-Leninist or Maoist, groups like the aforementioned Antifa or ARAN (Anti-Racist Action Network, Antifa's North American sister organization) were made up largely of anarchists and anarco-syndicalists. Further, in Western Europe, they were largely reactions to the National Front in Britain (which everybody knows was just the Nazi Party with a different coat of paint).

[–] jbforpresident 15 years ago

i definitley get what you're saying gonzo, films always skip over trads and go straight to boneheads.

its *beep*

-Matt Fatt

SKUNX FOR LIFE

[–] BarrisDarkly 14 years ago

Redskin bump. Nazi punks *beep* off!

On the run from Johnny Law...Ain't no trip to Cleveland.

[–] firequeen136 14 years ago

This was totally informative. I honestly had no idea all these different skinhead groups existed. But the guys they beat up in the movie had swastika patches on their arms. I think that labels them nazi skinheads.

Maybe we should find someone who lived in SLC in 1985 to tell us the different kind of skinheads that were there and how many there were and if they got along with punks.

[–] kkJamie 14 years ago

eh well punks and skinhead nazi or not didn't get along to great anyway. It was probably common for a punk to ignorantly call skinheads Nazis. I don't think they were even referring to the racists but the conformity. uniform style, all shaved heads. whatever everything in this film is not exactly true to the history. Ive heard more stories of punks being beat up by skinheads than the other way around. Never heard of a punk jumping skinheads with his punk friends as portrayed in this film. thats the point you know that these characters are posuers beating on some people because they are different from them.