Skinhead: Encyclopedia II - Skinhead - Categories

Skinhead - Categories

There are a number of different "types" of skinhead falling into three main categories suggested by common usage.

• Traditional (Trad), Trojan Skinheads (after the Trojan Records label), or Original Skins - Unlike the other categories, traditional skinheads do not regard attitudes toward racism as central to the subculture. Instead, they identify with the original skinhead movement ("The Spirit of 69") in music, style, culture and working class pride.

• SHARP (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice), Aggressively anti-racist and political, generally left wing. The moniker "SHARP skinheads" is commonly used for all anti-racist skinheads, even if they aren't members of a SHARP organization. Anti-racist skins include RASH (Red and Anarchist Skinheads), Redskins, and Anarcho-Skinheads.

• Nazi-Skinheads (Neo-Nazi Skins, called White Power or sometimes offensively Boneheads) - Racist and highly political. Despite the common moniker, some racist skinheads have no connection to Nazism. They are generally right wing and nationalist, however.

These categories are descriptive, not definitive. There are many skinheads who don't fit in any of these categories. The usefulness of these terms is to explain the dominant forces of skinhead social structure.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Categories", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki