It’s true. It started out in the very late 60s as a working class cultural rebellion against… the mods? I think it was the mods. Early skinheads were very much into the Jamaican dancehall culture that had been brought to the UK by immigrants from the Caribbean - although I’m sure you could certainly find some racist ones even back then, but quite a few were also people of color. The explicitly racist kind evolved in the late 70s/80s, and were cultivated by the rightwing British politcal party, and eventually racist groups specifically courted white working class men in Europe, North America, and Australia as a recruiting tactic. There are sub-cultures of skinheads called SHARPS who are explicitly anti-racist (Skinheads against racial prejudice).
Today’s history lesson brought to you by Doc Marten’s boots, perfect wear for your next anti-racist boot party!!!
(gif from the highly recommended film, This is England, which I suspect is a more accurate picture of 80s British skins than Australian film Romper Stompers or the American films American History X or the Believer)
That almost sounds like she’s paraphrasing Dan Savage, who’s been using “Impeach That Motherfucking Asshole” for over a year. He was even selling swag with it.
With a little ripple of outrage at first, but very little since.
It’s almost like there’s a double standard or something
Oh boy, now you’ve done it. Remember the goatee thread from a year and a half ago?
/ takes the bait
One possible reason is that it’s an easy way for a white guy to look tough without actually being tough. Just shave your head and eat until you’re big enough, and you look like a strength athlete. An off-season strength athlete, or maybe just a guy who made his high school football team, but a strength athlete nonetheless. A fat white guy with hair just looks like an accountant or something, and a fat white guy with lots and lots of hair looks like a computer nerd
A more serious answer: it’s one of the most socially acceptable hairstyles for balding guys. As one of these aforementioned balding guys, I also shave my head on occasion, at least during the summer months. If I let my hair grow out at all, it looks all stringy and weird, so I have to keep it cut short even when I have hair.
Oh God no. If that were the case, half my office would be racist.
Bald white fascists, on the other hand…
My brother was bald and white by the time he was thirty. Couldn’t grow hair to save his life. He inherited his hairline from our grandfather, who was also bald and white.
While you are correct that merely being White, male & bald doesn’t automatically make one a White supremacist, the optics are bad because of the composition; 3 White, bald, mafioso-looking dudes standing behind 45 looks like some straight up ‘Aryan skinhead’ shit.
I cannot fathom that’s any kind of coincidence.
The baldness calls attention to it in a way that might recall the old racist skinhead movement, but the real reason it stands out is that they look like clones. And hair would change that, but better still would be melanin or a woman. And the dearth of those is something that we do know about.
