Skinhead Movement

3 Pages 774 Words

Skinheads, just as many other social movements, have through the years come to be generally identified with neo-nazi politics, uncontrolled violence and football hooligans. Through this paper I’ll explore the origins of the skinhead cult, ultimately indicating that skinheads had originally little political affiliation, as well as skin colour had scarce meaning. Such movement is a perfect example of modern European mind, as it resulted directly from modern socio-economic developments that took place mostly in England but largely in Europe. Nowadays skinheads are found worldwide, and it has become one of the oldest youth cults still followed with pride, although the original ideas behind it have become mixed in with those of various other cults, such as the punk movement.
Skinhead roots are actually found across the Atlantic, in Jamaica, where the British were quickly importing the modern factories already blooming greatly throughout the United Kingdom. As a direct result of industrialization, the working class was coming to existence in Europe. Likewise in Jamaica, most of the men worked in the factories, creating a very large working class. Whoever worked in a factory found themselves wearing all the same clothes and with their heads shaven to avoid lice due to poor living conditions. The men and women started making of this their uniform and they called themselves rude boy/girl. Rude boys and girls came together as a social movement because of common living conditions. Rude boys and girls were the first “breed” of skinhead.
Factories were sadly the only mean of work for most Jamaicans, generally not skilled for other types of work; as the colonials only had interest in the manpower of the locals, education wasn’t offered to anybody. With the advent of further technological improvements, minimum personnel necessary to run a factory diminished. If many started losing their jobs in Europe, almost all Jamaicans found themselve...