Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP) are anti-racist skinheads who opposewhite power skinheads,neo-fascists and other political racists, particularly if they identify themselves as skinheads. SHARPs claim to reclaim the original multicultural identity of the original skinheads, hijacked by white power skinheads,[1] who they sometimes deride as "boneheads".[2]
SHARP professes no political ideology or affiliation beyond the common opposition to racism. The group stresses the importance of the black Jamaican influence in the original late-1960s skinhead movement, much akin toTrojan skinheads.
The originalskinhead subculture started in theUnited Kingdom in the late 1960s, and had heavy Britishmod andJamaicanrude boy influences, including a love forska andsoul music.[3][4][5][6] Although some skinheads (includingblack skinheads) had engaged in "Paki bashing" (random violence againstPakistanis and otherSouth Asian immigrants), skinheads were not associated with an organized racist political movement in the 1960s.[7][8][9] However, in the late 1970s, a skinhead revival in the UK included a sizablewhite nationalist faction, involving organizations such as theNational Front,British Movement,Rock Against Communism and in the late eightiesBlood and Honour. Because of this, the mainstream media began to label the whole skinhead identity asneo-fascist. This newwhite power skinhead movement then spread to other countries, including theUnited States.
Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice was founded in 1987 by Marcus Pacheco, a skinhead from New York City.[11][1] It emerged as a response by suburban adolescents to the bigotry of the growingwhite power movement in 1982. Traditional skinheads (trads) formed as a way to show that the skinhead subculture was not based on racism and political extremism.[12] NYCOi! bandThe Press and Jason O'Toole (vocalist of thehardcore punk groupLife's Blood) were among SHARP's early supporters. In 1989, Roddy Moreno of the Welsh Oi! bandThe Oppressed visited New York City and met a few SHARP members. On his return to theUnited Kingdom, he designed a new SHARP logo based on the Trojan Reggae labels design and started promoting SHARP ideals to British skinheads.
SHARP then spread throughout Europe and in other continents.[13] In the UK and other European countries, the SHARP attitude was more based on the individual than on organized groups. In the 2000s, SHARP is thought to have become more of an individual designation than an official organization.
Skinheads, especially in theUnited States andASEAN countries like Malaysia, Singapore andIndonesia align themselves with groups and organizations to this day. Most of these would designate themselves ascrews. Many strive for an individualist presentation with collectivist goals. As well they are generally imposed into community service, protesting, activism both violent and peaceful. SHARPs often take part of local mutual aid or activist groups such asBlack Lives Matter orAnti-Racist Action, in which the latter was even in part founded by skinheads, the most well known of which beingMic Crenshaw.
The United States SHARPs scene has been entirely agitated by the racist overture and have resorted to all forms of anti-racism andanti-fascism to redeem their style and culture.
Violence has been rampant within either of the skinhead factions for decades now. Between fighting in clubs and venues as well as the streets, frommosh pit shuffles to murder.[14][15] The American scene has been alive and vibrant since the 1980s. Some of the most well known anti-racist skinhead crews include The Baldies Syndicate[16] and American S.H.A.R.P (colloquially known as A.M.S). Additional groups maintain active membership globally.
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Many people may confuse SHARP members with racists, since their appearance is superficially similar: shaved heads, denim, lace up boots,button-down shirts and suspenders (calledbraces). One glib differentiation that might be imagined to separate the two would be music interests. SHARPs may listen to culturally influenced music such as soul, reggae and ska, but alsopunk,hardcore andOi!. Racist skinheads would disagree with some or all of these musical choices, but may listen to punk, hardcore, Oi!, as well asNazi punk andNational Socialist black metal.
In a deliberate attempt to reject the growing racist subculture, since the early 1980s SHARPs promulgated an anti-racist identity through small amateurfanzine publications likeHard As Nails. During the pre-Internet era, these publication established a network of like-minded individuals with similar musical and stylistic attitudes, who considered anti-racism an indispensable part of a living skinhead scene.Another strand of the same trad revival sought to affirm explicit links with the foundation of mod subculture and its apolitical, black-positive standards of fashion. Thescooter scene, with its runs andNorthern Soul dances, had never gone entirely away; and in the post-punk rediscovery of the past, under the influence ofThe Jam andQuadrophenia, it seemed a fresh and self-renewing direction for skinhead itself to go in.
By 1989, this trad scene was ripe for the injection of a cultural influence like SHARP, much as its own appearance had been symptomatic of an American internal revolution in US skinheads' attitudes to race and their own subculture.
An outgrowth of SHARP,Red and Anarchist Skinheads (RASH), formed in the United States in 1993 against anti-gay sentiment in the non-racist skinhead community.[17]
The original logo was an American flag surrounded by the SHARP lettering. The second SHARP logo is based on the logo ofTrojan Records, which originally mainly released blackJamaicanska,rocksteady, andreggae artists. Some variants of this design also incorporate the checkerboard motif of2 Tone Records, known for its multiracial roster of ska- and reggae-influenced bands.[18]
The way in which SHARPs dress is to project an image that looks hard and smart, in an evolving continuity with style ideals established in the middle-to-late 1960s. This style and demeanour originated from theUK, growing out of the pre-existingmod movement, taking cues and influences from Jamaican ska andrude boy culture. They remain true to the style's original purpose of enjoying life, clothes, attitude and music.
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