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Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice

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Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice

Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP) are anti-racist skinheads who oppose white power skinheads, neo-fascists and racism within the skinhead community, particularly if they identify themselves as skinheads. SHARPs claim to reclaim the original multicultural identity of the original skinheads, hijacked by white power skinheads, who they sometimes deride as "boneheads".

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 to Trojan skinheads.

The original skinhead subculture started in the United Kingdom in the late 1960s, and had heavy British mod and Jamaican rude boy influences, including a love for ska and soul music. Although some skinheads (including black skinheads) had engaged in "Paki bashing" (random violence against Pakistanis and other South Asian immigrants), skinheads were not associated with an organized racist political movement in the 1960s. However, in the late 1970s, a skinhead revival in the UK included a sizable white nationalist faction, involving organizations such as the National Front, British Movement, Rock Against Communism and in the late eighties Blood and Honour. Because of this, the mainstream media began to label the whole skinhead identity as neo-fascist. This new white power skinhead movement then spread to other countries, including the United States.

Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice was founded in 1987 by Marcus Pacheco, a skinhead from New York City. It emerged as a response by suburban adolescents to the bigotry of the growing white 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. NYC Oi! band The Press and Jason O'Toole (vocalist of the hardcore punk group Life's Blood) were among SHARP's early supporters. In 1989, Roddy Moreno of the Welsh Oi! band The Oppressed visited New York City and met a few SHARP members. On his return to the United 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. 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 the United States and ASEAN countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia align themselves with groups and organizations to this day. Most of these would designate themselves as crews. 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 as Black Lives Matter or Anti-Racist Action, in which the latter was even in part founded by skinheads, the most well known of which being Mic Crenshaw.

In the late-1980s, a SHARP community emerged in Portland, Oregon in the wake of increased activity from white power skinhead groups such as White Aryan Resistance (WAR) and local affiliates such as East Side White Pride. The racially-motivated murder of Ethiopian student Mulugeta Seraw by members of the groups was credited as having sparked the anti-racist skinhead movement in the city

The United States SHARPs scene has been entirely agitated by the racist overture and have resorted to all forms of anti-racism and anti-fascism to redeem their style and culture.

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