KVR Audio

Voidoid Surrealist · Post by **Voidoid Surrealist** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:06 pm

Laurel Aitken, the "Godfather of Ska", dead at age 78...

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:54 pm

Ah geez. I couldn't care less about skinheads* but their liking ska doesn't make the music any less good.

Sorry to see so many foundational figures dying. Guess it's got to be, but it's still very sad. :-(
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* Assuming the word has the same connotations of racism and neo-nazism in the UK that it has here.

willb · Post by **willb** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:13 pm

Meffy wrote:Assuming the word has the same connotations of racism and neo-nazism in the UK that it has here.

Not strictly; I believe that the skinhead working-class "youth cult" actually originated with black youths from the West Indies! (A quick googling reveals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinhead, which seems to be mostly correct as I remember it.) In the US, the racist ones get more attention, but there are non-racist skinheads here as well. When I was much younger, the ska scene in most of the mid-Atlantic region featured a lot of anti-racist skinheads.

The connotation you mention does raise the question of why one would choose to dress in such a way as to likely evoke such a loaded response. There may even be more non-racist than racist skinheads in the world -- but what are people going to assume when they see a skinhead?

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:15 pm

willb: Ah -- thanks. I was kind of confused that there could be non-white skinheads. Definitely a different thing.

And I beg pardon for side-tracking the thread.

Voidoid Surrealist · Post by **Voidoid Surrealist** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:17 pm

Meffy wrote:Ah geez. I couldn't care less about skinheads* but their liking ska doesn't make the music any less good.

Sorry to see so many foundational figures dying. Guess it's got to be, but it's still very sad.
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* Assuming the word has the same connotations of racism and neo-nazism in the UK that it has here.

Not all skins are racist in the US or the UK. There are plenty of racists out there (referred to as "boneheads" by many of the non-racist skins), but there are also groups like SHARP (SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice) and RASH ( Red and Anarchist SkinHeads) who are extremely anti-racist. While that scene tends to be too violent (brawls against white supremacists are all to common) and sometimes, especially in SHARP, a bit too blindly "patriotic" for my tastes , I've met a few folks involved in RASH and SHARP, and they were some damn fine people.

Laurel Aitken, R.I.P.