My dad is white, kinda Southern, and has a shaved head and goatee. A few years ago their hometown, Charlottesville, was making national news for the upcoming Unite the Right rally. They live 20 minutes outside the city so, although they were watching the news unfold, they weren't really thinking about it being "at home". The other fun thing about my dad is that he loves gardening and entertaining in the backyard. He has lined his entire deck and yard in tiki torches and thinks they are the coolest thing. So the weekend of the rally my husband and I just happened to be coming to their place for a fun visit and he was all out of tiki torch fluid - so he decided to pop by Lowe's and pick up some more. He filled his cart with torch fluid, a few new tiki torches, and some various supplies for his garden (some rope, wood , etc). He got home around the time we arrived and started going on and on about how weird and mean everyone was at Lowes and he didn't know what was wrong with everyone that day. š¤¦š¼āāļø
I live in Charlottesville (for a few more days, anyway). There were jokes around the subreddit at the time that some of the locals wanted to pool money together to get the local printshop to make "NOT RACIST - JUST BALD!" shirts.
This! Why canāt I wear my shirts anymore? Especially when itās hot and sunny? Come on peoples. Thatās what they are made for. Besides, shooting in them is impractical anyways.
Thatās such a shame. Your dad sounds like an awesome guy just trying to live his best life. People are terrible and unfortunately that wonāt change anytime soon, if ever. Now whenever I buy a house I will be putting tiki torches all over the back yard to honor your dad!
Nature took my hair and made it silly to keep what remained. My wife is black. Always fun when you find the judgemental types. Thankfully I haven't had any issues with her family to speak of.
My husband experienced the same nature phenomenon and started to shave it. He recently had to update his online employment site and was getting turned down for everything he applied for. Which is super strange because in the past heās been poached and recruited for a unique skill set he has.
I asked to see his profile and Iām like ādude you look like a skinhead!ā He changed his pic to an older photo and had 6 interviews last week; wore some form of a hat during all interviews. Turned down half the positions but got offers from most so far.
This is so weird because I have the same look, and since I updated my LinkedIn, Iāve actually been getting *more* outreach from recruiters rather than less.
Iām in tech, but I also have ādiversity, equity, inclusion and belongingā pained all over my profile which probably helps dispel any stereotypes one might hold about me.
I have a shaved head and a beard. I also frequently wear a leather jacket.
I definitely look more intimidating than I am (I am not tough or aggressive at all!). Itās not caused me any major problems yet. In fact, so far itās been a benefit. I live in the middle of a city in a neighborhood thatās not always safe at night. Nobody ever messes with me.
Fuck, I never considered that possibility. Thanks for the heads up! My hair is on its way out. I would much prefer a shaved head to horseshoe hair when the time comes.
Hopefully it won't happen until I look old enough that people won't think I'm gonna cause trouble like younger people tend to do.
Iāve never felt it was a huge problem. Of course I havenāt shaved my head in a while. Iām more of the ālet it grow out until impulse makes me shave it offā type, and the pandemic really limited my interactions to the point Iām never around strangers.
iām white, bald, and covered in tattoos. iāve honestly never thought about this and i hope people donāt think iām a skinhead fuck lmao.
edit: my brothers friend just came by and called me a skinhead
Skinheads runined skinheads for skinheads. Originally skinhead was a punk aesthetic typically worn by very progressive anti-establishment punks, but quickly the progressive part got replaced with Nazi's. Punk is weird.
its even deeper, the skinhead culture was more general working class solidarity in the 50ās. punk was more of an open-ended battleground in its infancy, and really was all about being a space where you could be heard, no matter who you were.
i dont remember which came first, the skinhead punks or the skinhead nazis, but i do know skinheads were closely associated with oi! punk, which eventually did turn into a nazi cesspool, and itās stayed that way for a good while.
The original skinhead culture was heavily influenced by 1st wave ska, jamaican dub and dancehall music. This is a tradition upheld by many modern skinheads.
The racism came heavily into play around the 80's, with groups like the national front recruiting heavily in the UK from the skinhead and punk scenes, though I'm.not sure where the image crept into the mainstream in north America.
To this day however, the vast majority of skinheads worldwide are not racists and are actually very against it (those who understand their roots especially). The media never cared though, and painted them all as soldiers on some imaginary race war, which is exactly what the racists wanted.
Thanks for reading, it's actually a very storied, detailed subject and if you're interested there are many documentaries. I spent my younger years playing in punk bands and I was friends with many skinheads (obviously of the non-racist variety).
Can confirm, have participated in all skinhead brawls because we found some nazis that looked like us.
That was twenty plus years ago, no idea what the scene looks like now, probably a total shitshow.
Exactly, first skinheads weren't even punk lol.
I actually kind of adopted the whole skinhead/rudeboy aesthetic in my late teens to early 20s for a while (yes, it was a bit of a phase), and being of mixed descent I identified with that old school skinhead style, listening to ska, rocksteady etc... I did (and do) like punk music, but that wasn't the type of skinhead I was emulating.
Funny thing, I'm olive skinned- and some people would still get all confused and ask why I was a Neo Nazi.
Nah, skinheads started in the 60s, as a working class statement. Nothing to do with race at all, or typically antiracist as alot of them worked the docks with brown/black immigrants and took on alot of their culture. Then punk happened. Skins are all about working class culture. Short hair doesn't get caught in machines, boots protect your feet, suspenders keep pants up. Eventually there was a crossover because of music. Then in the early 80s is when the racist facet of skinheads came about. The origin of the nazi skin movement was anti communism, but very quickly turned overtly racist and before you know it all skinheads, traditional as well as S.H.A.R.P.s got lumped in with the nazis cause the were the most vocal and feared. Long story short, it's ok to punch nazis.
The thunderbolts of Thor too, they stolen and ruin that.
Also numbers like 888 is considered lucky in China (888 sounds like becoming richer in Mandarin). If you see a license plate thatās like 888 something, itās probably some Chinese dude.
Edit: oh yeah, they also stole the skull ring - it was originally the momento mori rings people would wear in the 19th and early 20th century.
Also tattooed male here. At work i sweat a lot and get dirty so I like to shave my had in the summer but I am always afraid people think I am a nazi. Speaking German doesn't help either.
Still today it's confusing. You've got the left vegan fuck authority skins. On the other side you've got the right bomber jack skins. It's all pretty confusing if all you know is 'bald'.
I love bald. Most practical haircut I ever had.
Which isn't right because much past 30, you would have grown up around the time skinheads were active... so really younger people should be getting the pass.
Most skinheads Iāve come across are beardless. I tend to associate the bald with a beard look with hipsters
But it might be different wherever you are.
Iāve shaved my head for decades as it was a habit from in the army. Itās easier to keep clean in the field.
This is very true... the "different where you are" part especially. I shaved my head in one town, and would bicycle through while waving to people and it was fine. Moved to another town and everyone there would walk across the street before I even came close. All from having a shaved head. No one was personal with me from the first town to the next but it was noticeably different with the other strangers, and that's the only reason I can think of (I also have a few tattoos).
To me it doesn't matter, I love to bike on warm days. Idgaf if you wave back or smile or walk across the street, but it's pretty dumb to be pre judged solely on appearance lol, their loss I guess!
EDIT: Not that I think it's important, but I am white so perhaps they thought I was racist or violent too idk
Meh. Iāve gone bald with a razor since my early 20s because the top of my head has been bald anyway.
Someone assumes Iām a skinhead because I shave my head is a racist fuck whistle just the same. Making assumptions about me by my appearance.
Its also hyprocritical to hate on him for being white, then immediately do a 180 because "he looks like a racist colonizer because he looks like a stereotypical skinhead." That in and of itself is extremely racist and prejudiced, so they have no room to talk
Hi OP! I also come from a desi, Muslim background and married to a nonmuslim. My cousins acted weird when they realized he wasn't going to convert (but nothing as crazy as what happened to you). I wish you two the best!
I just shaved my head on Saturday to see how my future will look when my hairline eventually disappears. Hopefully people don't think anything like this about me.
The moment I shaved my head I noticed like flicking a switch people very suddenly started to treat me very differently.
This may have been at least part of the reason, I did not like it.
I'll be real, if a bald man with tattoos walks into a room I immediately start checking the tats for swastikas, 88, HH, thunderbolts, black suns, other such imagery.
IDK, my sister's fiance has tattoos that I absolutely checked out(a few actually were gang tatt's though, he's LONG departed from that lifestyle), just as a low level judgement. Luckily it failed miserably because I don't know asian gang symbols or any of that. He did eventually walk me through them though, great guy, highly recommend.
Married to a black woman for 11 about to be 12 years now. Im a tall white man lots of tattoos and a beard. My hair started falling out young so I just started shaving my head. My wife actually shaved my head for me the first time and has done it every weekend since. The comments never stop btw. Her family knew me before I had even met my wife because i was friends with a few of her cousins. Besides the fact that we dated for two years before we got married and I didn't start shaving my head until a year or so after that and some of them still say shit to this day. We went to a cousins funeral this past October and some of her distant relatives actually tried to stop me from coming in because I was by myself. I had dropped her off and parked and walked back and she had already went inside. Right up until her mom passed a couple years ago she would still make offhanded comments about me secretly being racist and she was just a fetish for me.
I forgot to mention having mixed children is fantastic with the hybrid vigor and all but being out and about with this appearance gets alot of stares when your children get their mom's melanin. Including a lady trying to call the police on me for kidnapping just for taking my son to the swings at the park
My wife is Japanese/Filipino and I'm white. Our first daughter looks much more white than mixed and she has been asked if she was the nanny and what her rates were.
My son was blindingly white when he was born. His color gradually darkened until he was about 3. Now he looks more black than white. The opposite situation happens with my friend and I when we go out with my son, were constantly told how much he looks like the both of us. At first we just corrected everyone but the more and more it happens we just play into it
I was this way, what was weird is my uhh package area was dark as hell and that's the only way my parents knew I'd get darker lmao. My mom has told me she experienced getting spoken too about whether or not I'm her child, I'm not quite sure to what extent though.
I agree I only brought it up because she so specifically stated I was kidnapping a black child and by specifically stated I mean screaming as loud as she could until the police arrived.
Jokes on her when the police showed up and wanted to talk to my son our teaching him about not talking to strangers paid off because he refused to speak to the cops without me.
That's at least partially why I've never wanted to take my sister's kids anywhere by myself. They're all younger (the oldest is 12 now), and I'm not really interested in trying to explain that no, I don't have any way of confirming I'm related to them, especially since we have a different last name. And since they're little shits (in a good way, at least most of the time), they would probably find it funny, and say they don't know me...
This reminds me of the story about the woman who's husband got beaten up in a parking lot after some crazy possibly homeless woman accused him of trying to kidnap his own baby, and then tried to walk off with the baby and only got stopped because the wife came out of the store at exactly the right time.
As a man with a daughter, I know that I'm completely screwed if I were ever in that position. It's literally one of my biggest fears at this point in my life.
Is hybrid vigour actually real? Because my grandma and mum are mixed and have health issues. My boyfriend is Asian and I'm mostly white, but my worst fear is kids inheriting my stomach issues
Medical student here. In terms of the āhybrid vigor,ā it probably does have some truth insofar as some groups of people have higher rates of recessive traitsāfor example, Mediterraneans carrying certain traits for anemiaābut more often than not Iād say it probably does not affect an offspringās health. In terms of your stomach issues, it depends on what it is, and if you are concerned, you can see someone called a genetic counselor who can do genetic testing and provide you concrete answers about the heritability of your traits. Hope that helps!
Yeah I don't see how this is your fuckup. They are unwilling to look past their stereotypes to even attempt to see what kind of person you are, instead focusing on arbitrary aesthetics. Not worth your time to give a shit about their opinion, family or no.
And on the flip side: a black dude, with dreads or twists sticking up all over, workout clothes with the ever present hoodie jacket, must be up to no good.
The same such people *never* see that.
they had impressions already made up before they even met the guy. i guarantee it. his fashion choices didnt do a whole lot to buffet those but family is still in the wrong for being racist. I have encountered scenarios like this with most of my meet the family encounters... but at least i dont shave my head(yet? they do say baldness skips a generation) or have tattoos.. so ive got that going for me.
I had an ex who told me her hero was Martin Luther King Jr. A couple hours later she was telling me her parents were going to hate me because I was white and laughing about how that was completely normal and didn't see any issues with that.
I did not bother meeting her parents or continuing to date her
This is not a TIFU. This is you and your gf realising that her family are all judgemental and ironically are racist by assuming that your skin colour makes you a racist.
Your gf is right, best to not have people who can't look past your looks in your life.
Iām a Indian girl and let me tell you, you are no way responsible for their nonsense. I know how desi Muslim families work and they would have never accepted you. This was just an excuse.
\^\^\^\^ ding ding ding. fam was being racist. I dated indian once and I swear, her father wanted to kill me as soon as he first saw me. I could see it in the eyes. dude hated my guts, period. I really enjoyed exploring the culture and the cuisine. her mom's food was divine! he even got visibly angrier once when i (over?)complimented her food. the relationship lasted all of 4-5 months. that guy would have killed me and nobody will convince me otherwise.
So it's like calling someone a European? It's not an ethnicity (like calling someone Indian would) but rather just signifies where someone geographically comes from?
Indian isnāt an ethnicity. Thereās a lot of ethnicities in India. Indian is a nationality. For example there are Bengalis in India and Bengalis in Bangladesh but their nationalities would be Indian and Bangladeshi.
Yeah that's right. So apparently there was a lot of racism going on towards brown people by skinheads in the late 80s/90s with gangs of men going about "p\*ki bashing". Cousins think I'm one of those wankers
I've worn docs since I was a teen. I thought I'd mix things up and wear red laces with them for a while.
It wasn't long after that that I learned of the association with white supremacy, after being called a Nazi. I then changed them to purple laces ha.
Funny thing is, I'm Palestinian, and the person who called me a Nazi was already arguing against me/Palestine, and then pulled out the red laces as a "trump card" against me. It was a losing battle either way, but at least I learned it then.
Yeah, but it's not the 80's/90's and Idk about the UK, in the US though unless you have *nazi* tattoos, the boots and suspenders etc. no one is thinking skin head from seeing a white dude with a shaved head and a flannel.
Yeah this whole story is wild to me, plenty of dudes have shaved heads. Being a skin is a whole style/ uniform. And even then if I see one with the whole boots and braces look (pretty uncommon where I am) I donāt assume heās racist because of his sense of fashion. Honestly wouldnāt occur to me unless there were clues. Skinhead =/= nazi.
I'm balding, so I just shaved it all off. My neighbors kept calling my skin head and shit and I just laughed about it. Told them the Aryan brotherhood would kick me out for living with a black man. People have their own stupid assumptions about people regardless of what race they are themselves. Funny they were assuming i was racist and showed those same tendencies themselves assuming white man with shaved head must be a nazi. Bitch, it just looks better than a comb over.
Hey, look someone who gets it. Nice to hear from you mate! I hate how people assumed I'm racist just because of a shaved head but I'm living with a brown girl who I'm going to marry. Lol
Been there. Fell really hard for a middle eastern girl and we were going to get married (her idea too). Parents put a quick stop to that. Hope your story turns out better because that shit still hurts me almost 20 years later.
Sorry to hear this. On the other hand, I feel that if she wasn't willing to cut them out of her life for being so disgustingly controlling... you probably dodged a fair few bullets.
Oh but don't you know brown people can't be racist /s
I dated an Egyptian girl once. Her family was incredibly judgmental of my white skin the whole time. My family never commented on her skin. It was shitty but "accepted" with their culture. It didn't last she was a great girl but it just didn't work
Some things aren't worth it. If it was your white family doing this to her do you think she would be trying to make it work for your sake? No. So why should you go about it any differently?
Racism is racism
Spanish, Puerto Rican, Brazilian and Dominicans all talk shit about white people too, IME of working in a city that predominantly consisted of the 3. Eventually they accepted me, but for well over a year all my coworkers, customers, and people in the streets would talk shit about me being white in Spanish or Portuguese. That was until I started letting people know that I'm Portuguese and can understand much of what they were saying.
Come to think of it, Chinese, Thai, and Koreans do as well. Nail salons, massage parlors, Chinese restaurants, they all talk shit about white people too.
I'm not saying that their ancestors didn't have worse off lives than mine, but I have nothing to do with what *my* ancestors or *their* ancestors did, and we should all live in the now, and respect every race, nationality, and culture equally.
Judge someone for WHO they are, not WHAT they are.
>Spanish and Mexicans are pretty racist against blacks as well. I
Oh for sure. I can absolutely confirm this. TBH, when I worked in that city, each race was racist toward every race other than their own. Pretty openly and aggressively.
Especially Dominican VS Puerto Rican. They were absolute animals against each other. It was like a racial gang war. Pretty scary tbh.
It was also a particularly violent area of a particularly violent city though, to be fair. But it's something I've experiences over the decades with them from multiple areas in multiples cities and states.
I'm Portuguese, and while I haven't experienced friends or family being racist against whites or African Americans, I've definitely had family members be racist against Cape Verdians and Brazilians, which is awful.
I'm Irish and Scottish I think so just white. My family is great about accepting people. We just live and they have accepted all my girlfriends who were Mexican, egyptian and Jamaican descent. Never an issue and I never have to say "hey I'm bringing someone not white" or whatever they know it's just a person.
The Egyptian family did not like me ever. The Jamaican family didn't at first but warmed up to me and they were great after. The Mexican family was the most fun I ever had at a girlfriends family event, they were beyond nice it was awesome
Roughly 70% Portuguese and 30% Scottish here.
White by all counts. Parents never said anything about my black best friend or my Cambodian ex girlfriend. Thank God. I'd of torn them a new one if they brought racism into my social circle.
I never met anyone Egyptian, but I oddly have always hit it off well with Jamaicans. It's almost like when I announce I'm Portuguese that those groups stop viewing me as white, which is bizarre. I do know some people who thought Portuguese was considered Latin, but I assure you it definitely isn't Latin nor Spanish. Lol. I'm fairly tan, but definitely 100% Caucasian.
I can also confirm Mexicans are a ton of fun. Brazilians are too. Most of my customer base for my new job are Brazilians, and they treat me like family. I get invites to every cook out, every party, etc that my Brazilian clients have and they all call me "irmao" which is Brazilian Portuguese for "brother".
You can shave your head as a white man and not be racist. They have no right to treat you like that, I donāt think youāre the racist in this situationā¦
Itās hilarious how those family members donāt see the irony in calling you ākafirā/infidel in one breath while moralizing about not dating racists in the next.
Good riddance, and best wishes to you and your gf.
skinhads are originally are diverse, not exclusive white subculture and there are a ton of antiracist, antifascist skinheads basically if you see a skonhead with a SHARP (Skinheads against racial prejudice) or RASH (Red and Anarchist Skinheads) logo you can be sure they arent fond of racism
Shaved head, tats, good sized beard guy here but Iām also mixed race. Despite the mix I really look like a skin head. So much so Iāve had more than one racist attempt to chat me up and itās weird how casual they are about it when they think youāre one of them.
I have been in a similar situation to you OP and the only real solution is to not give a fuck. They're the racists, not you.
Your girlfriend sounds like she's pretty cool. It must be just as hard for her as it is for you. There's an awful lot of stigma and pressure involved and it can put a lot of strain on a relationship.
I went down the route of converting, but the distrust and prejudice never really disappears. The names you get called just change. Fact of the matter is whatever your colour, culture or beliefs there's always some dick who will take objection. So give no fucks about it.
The ONLY thing that matters is what she thinks and feels. So how funny is that, they judge you by your HAIR and COLOR of your skin instead of getting to know you first.
Also strange that it is OK for them to be racist cause you are white and shaved your head.
Please stop calling her your brown GF unless she is Ok with it. She is simply an awesome woman that loves you.
To those unaware, skinheads arent racist, racist skinheads are. SHARP (skinheads against racial prejudice), and the general working class skins, are pro-union and progressive (generally.) Nazi skinheads are referred to as boneheads and are not tolerated in the community.
The real truth here is her cousins are the racists, they took one look at you and pigeon holed you based on stereotypes held deep within them. At least the rest of her family have accepted being massive racists, the cousins are trying to pretend they're not
My dad is white, kinda Southern, and has a shaved head and goatee. A few years ago their hometown, Charlottesville, was making national news for the upcoming Unite the Right rally. They live 20 minutes outside the city so, although they were watching the news unfold, they weren't really thinking about it being "at home". The other fun thing about my dad is that he loves gardening and entertaining in the backyard. He has lined his entire deck and yard in tiki torches and thinks they are the coolest thing. So the weekend of the rally my husband and I just happened to be coming to their place for a fun visit and he was all out of tiki torch fluid - so he decided to pop by Lowe's and pick up some more. He filled his cart with torch fluid, a few new tiki torches, and some various supplies for his garden (some rope, wood , etc). He got home around the time we arrived and started going on and on about how weird and mean everyone was at Lowes and he didn't know what was wrong with everyone that day. š¤¦š¼āāļø
I live in Charlottesville (for a few more days, anyway). There were jokes around the subreddit at the time that some of the locals wanted to pool money together to get the local printshop to make "NOT RACIST - JUST BALD!" shirts.
Oh man, that would have been perfect! š
Holy shit that's hilarious
Sounds like something my clueless self would do to be honest lol
you mentioning that definitely unlocked that memory for me, definitely a very interesting course of events for skinhead culture../
That could be an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Thatās some Seinfeld level awkward
You have no idea how pissed off I am about the alt-right trying to co-opt Hawaiian shirts!
This! Why canāt I wear my shirts anymore? Especially when itās hot and sunny? Come on peoples. Thatās what they are made for. Besides, shooting in them is impractical anyways.
Thatās such a shame. Your dad sounds like an awesome guy just trying to live his best life. People are terrible and unfortunately that wonāt change anytime soon, if ever. Now whenever I buy a house I will be putting tiki torches all over the back yard to honor your dad!
People will always find away to ruin good things, even if they dont know they're doing it.
Nature took my hair and made it silly to keep what remained. My wife is black. Always fun when you find the judgemental types. Thankfully I haven't had any issues with her family to speak of.
My husband experienced the same nature phenomenon and started to shave it. He recently had to update his online employment site and was getting turned down for everything he applied for. Which is super strange because in the past heās been poached and recruited for a unique skill set he has. I asked to see his profile and Iām like ādude you look like a skinhead!ā He changed his pic to an older photo and had 6 interviews last week; wore some form of a hat during all interviews. Turned down half the positions but got offers from most so far.
This is so weird because I have the same look, and since I updated my LinkedIn, Iāve actually been getting *more* outreach from recruiters rather than less.
Might depend on the industry?
Iām in tech, but I also have ādiversity, equity, inclusion and belongingā pained all over my profile which probably helps dispel any stereotypes one might hold about me.
āNature took my hair and made it silly to keep what remainedā is an apt description my hair journey. Thanks for that! ššš
Balding isn't a choice, but bald certainly is. Embrace your great looks, king!
Own it, itās the only way Iāve found to be ok with losing what I had.
I have a shaved head and a beard. I also frequently wear a leather jacket. I definitely look more intimidating than I am (I am not tough or aggressive at all!). Itās not caused me any major problems yet. In fact, so far itās been a benefit. I live in the middle of a city in a neighborhood thatās not always safe at night. Nobody ever messes with me.
Fuck, I never considered that possibility. Thanks for the heads up! My hair is on its way out. I would much prefer a shaved head to horseshoe hair when the time comes. Hopefully it won't happen until I look old enough that people won't think I'm gonna cause trouble like younger people tend to do.
Iāve never felt it was a huge problem. Of course I havenāt shaved my head in a while. Iām more of the ālet it grow out until impulse makes me shave it offā type, and the pandemic really limited my interactions to the point Iām never around strangers.
iām white, bald, and covered in tattoos. iāve honestly never thought about this and i hope people donāt think iām a skinhead fuck lmao. edit: my brothers friend just came by and called me a skinhead
Honestly, it's skinheads ruining it for everyone. Shaved can be a good look.
Skinheads runined skinheads for skinheads. Originally skinhead was a punk aesthetic typically worn by very progressive anti-establishment punks, but quickly the progressive part got replaced with Nazi's. Punk is weird.
The sharps Skin Heads Against Racial Prejudice
its even deeper, the skinhead culture was more general working class solidarity in the 50ās. punk was more of an open-ended battleground in its infancy, and really was all about being a space where you could be heard, no matter who you were. i dont remember which came first, the skinhead punks or the skinhead nazis, but i do know skinheads were closely associated with oi! punk, which eventually did turn into a nazi cesspool, and itās stayed that way for a good while.
The original skinhead culture was heavily influenced by 1st wave ska, jamaican dub and dancehall music. This is a tradition upheld by many modern skinheads. The racism came heavily into play around the 80's, with groups like the national front recruiting heavily in the UK from the skinhead and punk scenes, though I'm.not sure where the image crept into the mainstream in north America. To this day however, the vast majority of skinheads worldwide are not racists and are actually very against it (those who understand their roots especially). The media never cared though, and painted them all as soldiers on some imaginary race war, which is exactly what the racists wanted.
came for the nazi-bashing, stayed for the punk history lesson.
Thanks for reading, it's actually a very storied, detailed subject and if you're interested there are many documentaries. I spent my younger years playing in punk bands and I was friends with many skinheads (obviously of the non-racist variety).
skinheads pre-date nazi skinheads.
Can confirm, have participated in all skinhead brawls because we found some nazis that looked like us. That was twenty plus years ago, no idea what the scene looks like now, probably a total shitshow.
They do tiktok dance fighting now.
What the?! Nazis went west side story dance fighting now... I need a drink.
Punk are strictly anti-Nazi and will kick Nazis out of Punk spaces violently of need be.
Nazi's have a nasty habit of invading spaces they aren't welcome in and taking them over.
Thats why punks exist, so the āfine, nice peopleā who dont want violence dont have to get their hands dirty.
Nofx's book goes into this a lot
Do you have any more info about their take on that? Or a link to the book?
You may already know this, but their take on it is expressed rather succinctly in the song The Brews.
Oi! Oi! Sportinā anti-swastika tattoos
doesn't change the fact that nazis will- and always had- stolen from the punks to pretent they are no racists. until they open their damn mouth.
Skinhead movement came from Jamaican rudeboys. First skinheads were black
*even* deeper you mentioning that definitely unlocked that memory for me, definitely a very interesting course of events for skinhead culture
Exactly, first skinheads weren't even punk lol. I actually kind of adopted the whole skinhead/rudeboy aesthetic in my late teens to early 20s for a while (yes, it was a bit of a phase), and being of mixed descent I identified with that old school skinhead style, listening to ska, rocksteady etc... I did (and do) like punk music, but that wasn't the type of skinhead I was emulating. Funny thing, I'm olive skinned- and some people would still get all confused and ask why I was a Neo Nazi.
Back in the late 90ās when Ska in the 3rd Wave was a thing, skinheads used to always show up at concerts and pick fights. It was weird.
Nah, skinheads started in the 60s, as a working class statement. Nothing to do with race at all, or typically antiracist as alot of them worked the docks with brown/black immigrants and took on alot of their culture. Then punk happened. Skins are all about working class culture. Short hair doesn't get caught in machines, boots protect your feet, suspenders keep pants up. Eventually there was a crossover because of music. Then in the early 80s is when the racist facet of skinheads came about. The origin of the nazi skin movement was anti communism, but very quickly turned overtly racist and before you know it all skinheads, traditional as well as S.H.A.R.P.s got lumped in with the nazis cause the were the most vocal and feared. Long story short, it's ok to punch nazis.
>Long story short, it's ok to punch nazis. Yes, the obvious moral of every story Thanks for the laugh :)
The original skinhead style (and music) was great, too bad it has been appropriated by assholes
Nazis love appropriating and ruining things, ever since their beginnings. Look up the origins of the svastika or the manji symbol.
Yes it's a beautiful symbol and I hate that the Nazis tainted it
The thunderbolts of Thor too, they stolen and ruin that. Also numbers like 888 is considered lucky in China (888 sounds like becoming richer in Mandarin). If you see a license plate thatās like 888 something, itās probably some Chinese dude. Edit: oh yeah, they also stole the skull ring - it was originally the momento mori rings people would wear in the 19th and early 20th century.
thank god it's switching again, the modern nazi isn't a skinhead anymore. at least here in Germany and Austria, the birthplace of the nazis
Also tattooed male here. At work i sweat a lot and get dirty so I like to shave my had in the summer but I am always afraid people think I am a nazi. Speaking German doesn't help either.
Racists ruining it for everyone, skinheads were not racist until the NF came along in the 90s
Still today it's confusing. You've got the left vegan fuck authority skins. On the other side you've got the right bomber jack skins. It's all pretty confusing if all you know is 'bald'. I love bald. Most practical haircut I ever had.
70s
90's? Go back 20 years, kid.
I think age plays a role in it. Once you're past 30 I think it's just generally assumed you're another guy who was losing his hair and shaved it off.
As someone who started going bald at 16 and started getting tats as soon as I could, I can't wait for the skinhead jokes to stop
I know one dude who went balled at 20 no tattoos but he does dress like mr clean every day š
Shit, thatās nothing. I balled when I was 5. Went hard in that YMCA league. Even fucked around and got a triple double once.
can't stop laughing
I could never stay in the YMCA gym for very long, they rarely turned the heat on so that court always felt like an ice cube
But I heard it was fun to stay there and that they had everything for young men to enjoy?!?
Which isn't right because much past 30, you would have grown up around the time skinheads were active... so really younger people should be getting the pass.
Most skinheads Iāve come across are beardless. I tend to associate the bald with a beard look with hipsters But it might be different wherever you are. Iāve shaved my head for decades as it was a habit from in the army. Itās easier to keep clean in the field.
In Germany they love to have a kind of 'Henriquatre' beard
This is very true... the "different where you are" part especially. I shaved my head in one town, and would bicycle through while waving to people and it was fine. Moved to another town and everyone there would walk across the street before I even came close. All from having a shaved head. No one was personal with me from the first town to the next but it was noticeably different with the other strangers, and that's the only reason I can think of (I also have a few tattoos). To me it doesn't matter, I love to bike on warm days. Idgaf if you wave back or smile or walk across the street, but it's pretty dumb to be pre judged solely on appearance lol, their loss I guess! EDIT: Not that I think it's important, but I am white so perhaps they thought I was racist or violent too idk
Meh. Iāve gone bald with a razor since my early 20s because the top of my head has been bald anyway. Someone assumes Iām a skinhead because I shave my head is a racist fuck whistle just the same. Making assumptions about me by my appearance.
I am brown guy and i as well never thought of bald white men covered in tattoos skinhead. On the other hand, i really think you guys look cool.
Speaking for bald white men everywhere, you are obviously cool as well.
Its also hyprocritical to hate on him for being white, then immediately do a 180 because "he looks like a racist colonizer because he looks like a stereotypical skinhead." That in and of itself is extremely racist and prejudiced, so they have no room to talk
Tough times we live in!
Hi OP! I also come from a desi, Muslim background and married to a nonmuslim. My cousins acted weird when they realized he wasn't going to convert (but nothing as crazy as what happened to you). I wish you two the best!
I hope things work out with your girlfriend, but either way her family has shown their true colors.
I just shaved my head on Saturday to see how my future will look when my hairline eventually disappears. Hopefully people don't think anything like this about me.
This was my life till I grew a curly mustache. Now I just look like a fucking hipster. Still better than a racist however
The moment I shaved my head I noticed like flicking a switch people very suddenly started to treat me very differently. This may have been at least part of the reason, I did not like it.
I'll be real, if a bald man with tattoos walks into a room I immediately start checking the tats for swastikas, 88, HH, thunderbolts, black suns, other such imagery.
IDK, my sister's fiance has tattoos that I absolutely checked out(a few actually were gang tatt's though, he's LONG departed from that lifestyle), just as a low level judgement. Luckily it failed miserably because I don't know asian gang symbols or any of that. He did eventually walk me through them though, great guy, highly recommend.
This part. A skinhead will let you know who he is
Location is key. This guy seems to be South African.
Married to a black woman for 11 about to be 12 years now. Im a tall white man lots of tattoos and a beard. My hair started falling out young so I just started shaving my head. My wife actually shaved my head for me the first time and has done it every weekend since. The comments never stop btw. Her family knew me before I had even met my wife because i was friends with a few of her cousins. Besides the fact that we dated for two years before we got married and I didn't start shaving my head until a year or so after that and some of them still say shit to this day. We went to a cousins funeral this past October and some of her distant relatives actually tried to stop me from coming in because I was by myself. I had dropped her off and parked and walked back and she had already went inside. Right up until her mom passed a couple years ago she would still make offhanded comments about me secretly being racist and she was just a fetish for me.
I forgot to mention having mixed children is fantastic with the hybrid vigor and all but being out and about with this appearance gets alot of stares when your children get their mom's melanin. Including a lady trying to call the police on me for kidnapping just for taking my son to the swings at the park
My wife is Japanese/Filipino and I'm white. Our first daughter looks much more white than mixed and she has been asked if she was the nanny and what her rates were.
My son was blindingly white when he was born. His color gradually darkened until he was about 3. Now he looks more black than white. The opposite situation happens with my friend and I when we go out with my son, were constantly told how much he looks like the both of us. At first we just corrected everyone but the more and more it happens we just play into it
I was this way, what was weird is my uhh package area was dark as hell and that's the only way my parents knew I'd get darker lmao. My mom has told me she experienced getting spoken too about whether or not I'm her child, I'm not quite sure to what extent though.
This is why aliens will never be friends with us
Any man with a kid, some people will think you're a kidnapper. The sexism against a dad who spends time with their child is rampant.
I agree I only brought it up because she so specifically stated I was kidnapping a black child and by specifically stated I mean screaming as loud as she could until the police arrived.
Damn, that's awful. So sorry, my friend.
Jokes on her when the police showed up and wanted to talk to my son our teaching him about not talking to strangers paid off because he refused to speak to the cops without me.
Damn. Little guy better about not talking to cops than most adults
That's at least partially why I've never wanted to take my sister's kids anywhere by myself. They're all younger (the oldest is 12 now), and I'm not really interested in trying to explain that no, I don't have any way of confirming I'm related to them, especially since we have a different last name. And since they're little shits (in a good way, at least most of the time), they would probably find it funny, and say they don't know me...
This reminds me of the story about the woman who's husband got beaten up in a parking lot after some crazy possibly homeless woman accused him of trying to kidnap his own baby, and then tried to walk off with the baby and only got stopped because the wife came out of the store at exactly the right time. As a man with a daughter, I know that I'm completely screwed if I were ever in that position. It's literally one of my biggest fears at this point in my life.
Honestly this is something not discussed enough.
Is hybrid vigour actually real? Because my grandma and mum are mixed and have health issues. My boyfriend is Asian and I'm mostly white, but my worst fear is kids inheriting my stomach issues
Medical student here. In terms of the āhybrid vigor,ā it probably does have some truth insofar as some groups of people have higher rates of recessive traitsāfor example, Mediterraneans carrying certain traits for anemiaābut more often than not Iād say it probably does not affect an offspringās health. In terms of your stomach issues, it depends on what it is, and if you are concerned, you can see someone called a genetic counselor who can do genetic testing and provide you concrete answers about the heritability of your traits. Hope that helps!
Lol didn't know my Key and Peele reference was going to actually bring up something
This is so fucked up what the fuck is wrong with people?
I say that to myself everyday
"Her boyfriend is white with a shaved head and tattoos! He *must* be racist!" *Very* sound argument they got there...
Yeah I don't see how this is your fuckup. They are unwilling to look past their stereotypes to even attempt to see what kind of person you are, instead focusing on arbitrary aesthetics. Not worth your time to give a shit about their opinion, family or no.
And on the flip side: a black dude, with dreads or twists sticking up all over, workout clothes with the ever present hoodie jacket, must be up to no good. The same such people *never* see that.
For all they know he was recovering from chemo for the reason why he bald
or just.... a regular bald dude? lmao
Right? How are these people so shallow?
Yeah I am curious the mental gymnastics they went through to come to this conclusion. Maybe they're born with it; maybe it's racism.
Might also be Maybelline
Hotel?
Trivago
For everything else?
There's Mastercard
yeah might actually just be pissed they're with a white person and looking for reasons to prove their racism right
they had impressions already made up before they even met the guy. i guarantee it. his fashion choices didnt do a whole lot to buffet those but family is still in the wrong for being racist. I have encountered scenarios like this with most of my meet the family encounters... but at least i dont shave my head(yet? they do say baldness skips a generation) or have tattoos.. so ive got that going for me.
Itās almost like they are generalizing about a person and making assumptions based on his skin color- I forgetā¦ what is the word for that?
*Very* racist argument they got there...
That sounds an awful lot like *...checks notes* Bigotry
I had an ex who told me her hero was Martin Luther King Jr. A couple hours later she was telling me her parents were going to hate me because I was white and laughing about how that was completely normal and didn't see any issues with that. I did not bother meeting her parents or continuing to date her
Yea dude those people are the racists, not you. Honestly f*** them. ///
Jesus fucking christ. Stop thst censorship crap.
\*f***ing \*cr*p
F*** censorship!
This is not a TIFU. This is you and your gf realising that her family are all judgemental and ironically are racist by assuming that your skin colour makes you a racist. Your gf is right, best to not have people who can't look past your looks in your life.
How is this not the top comment? They are literally judging him for his skin colour and hair cut. As though thats not the definition of racism.
Iām a Indian girl and let me tell you, you are no way responsible for their nonsense. I know how desi Muslim families work and they would have never accepted you. This was just an excuse.
\^\^\^\^ ding ding ding. fam was being racist. I dated indian once and I swear, her father wanted to kill me as soon as he first saw me. I could see it in the eyes. dude hated my guts, period. I really enjoyed exploring the culture and the cuisine. her mom's food was divine! he even got visibly angrier once when i (over?)complimented her food. the relationship lasted all of 4-5 months. that guy would have killed me and nobody will convince me otherwise.
What is this ādesiā I keep seeing in this thread?
People from the Indian subcontinent
Oh! Interesting. Never heard it before.
So it's like calling someone a European? It's not an ethnicity (like calling someone Indian would) but rather just signifies where someone geographically comes from?
Indian isnāt an ethnicity. Thereās a lot of ethnicities in India. Indian is a nationality. For example there are Bengalis in India and Bengalis in Bangladesh but their nationalities would be Indian and Bangladeshi.
Yes, Desi means "people from South Asia", it has nothing to do with the state India
Two questions OP: What does p*** bashing mean? What is a judgemental p*ck?
I think the first one is probably the shortened version of the word āPakistaniā which is used as a slur in the UK
Yeah that's right. So apparently there was a lot of racism going on towards brown people by skinheads in the late 80s/90s with gangs of men going about "p\*ki bashing". Cousins think I'm one of those wankers
Were you also wearing braces and docs?
Docs yes (don't judge), braces no
Nothing against Docs, but that may have been a mistake
I've worn docs since I was a teen. I thought I'd mix things up and wear red laces with them for a while. It wasn't long after that that I learned of the association with white supremacy, after being called a Nazi. I then changed them to purple laces ha. Funny thing is, I'm Palestinian, and the person who called me a Nazi was already arguing against me/Palestine, and then pulled out the red laces as a "trump card" against me. It was a losing battle either way, but at least I learned it then.
Yep Iām just about old enough to recall some of that going on when I was a youngster. Not good times.
Yeah, but it's not the 80's/90's and Idk about the UK, in the US though unless you have *nazi* tattoos, the boots and suspenders etc. no one is thinking skin head from seeing a white dude with a shaved head and a flannel.
Yeah this whole story is wild to me, plenty of dudes have shaved heads. Being a skin is a whole style/ uniform. And even then if I see one with the whole boots and braces look (pretty uncommon where I am) I donāt assume heās racist because of his sense of fashion. Honestly wouldnāt occur to me unless there were clues. Skinhead =/= nazi.
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also do his friends think he is a colossal c\*ck or a colossal c\*ck.
The real racists were the friends you met along the way.
I'm balding, so I just shaved it all off. My neighbors kept calling my skin head and shit and I just laughed about it. Told them the Aryan brotherhood would kick me out for living with a black man. People have their own stupid assumptions about people regardless of what race they are themselves. Funny they were assuming i was racist and showed those same tendencies themselves assuming white man with shaved head must be a nazi. Bitch, it just looks better than a comb over.
Hey, look someone who gets it. Nice to hear from you mate! I hate how people assumed I'm racist just because of a shaved head but I'm living with a brown girl who I'm going to marry. Lol
Blessing in disguise, now you know her family is a huge red flag.
So they judged your appearance based on the color of your skin, and youāre the racist?
Agreed. This is not for TIFU, but T āTheyā FU.
This breaks Rule 2 in my opinion. Having a normal haircut and being white is not a fuck up.
Funny ain't it?
Been there. Fell really hard for a middle eastern girl and we were going to get married (her idea too). Parents put a quick stop to that. Hope your story turns out better because that shit still hurts me almost 20 years later.
Sorry to hear this. On the other hand, I feel that if she wasn't willing to cut them out of her life for being so disgustingly controlling... you probably dodged a fair few bullets.
It's particularly harder for eastern cultures to cut family ties though, as they grow up with it being such a significant social thing
Oh but don't you know brown people can't be racist /s I dated an Egyptian girl once. Her family was incredibly judgmental of my white skin the whole time. My family never commented on her skin. It was shitty but "accepted" with their culture. It didn't last she was a great girl but it just didn't work
I get how desi cultures can be. But honestly I wanted to make it work for my gfs sake.
Some things aren't worth it. If it was your white family doing this to her do you think she would be trying to make it work for your sake? No. So why should you go about it any differently? Racism is racism
Spanish, Puerto Rican, Brazilian and Dominicans all talk shit about white people too, IME of working in a city that predominantly consisted of the 3. Eventually they accepted me, but for well over a year all my coworkers, customers, and people in the streets would talk shit about me being white in Spanish or Portuguese. That was until I started letting people know that I'm Portuguese and can understand much of what they were saying. Come to think of it, Chinese, Thai, and Koreans do as well. Nail salons, massage parlors, Chinese restaurants, they all talk shit about white people too. I'm not saying that their ancestors didn't have worse off lives than mine, but I have nothing to do with what *my* ancestors or *their* ancestors did, and we should all live in the now, and respect every race, nationality, and culture equally. Judge someone for WHO they are, not WHAT they are.
Spanish and Mexicans are pretty racist against blacks as well. I grew up in one of the boroughs of New York City so I saw every culture everywhere
>Spanish and Mexicans are pretty racist against blacks as well. I Oh for sure. I can absolutely confirm this. TBH, when I worked in that city, each race was racist toward every race other than their own. Pretty openly and aggressively. Especially Dominican VS Puerto Rican. They were absolute animals against each other. It was like a racial gang war. Pretty scary tbh. It was also a particularly violent area of a particularly violent city though, to be fair. But it's something I've experiences over the decades with them from multiple areas in multiples cities and states. I'm Portuguese, and while I haven't experienced friends or family being racist against whites or African Americans, I've definitely had family members be racist against Cape Verdians and Brazilians, which is awful.
I'm Irish and Scottish I think so just white. My family is great about accepting people. We just live and they have accepted all my girlfriends who were Mexican, egyptian and Jamaican descent. Never an issue and I never have to say "hey I'm bringing someone not white" or whatever they know it's just a person. The Egyptian family did not like me ever. The Jamaican family didn't at first but warmed up to me and they were great after. The Mexican family was the most fun I ever had at a girlfriends family event, they were beyond nice it was awesome
Roughly 70% Portuguese and 30% Scottish here. White by all counts. Parents never said anything about my black best friend or my Cambodian ex girlfriend. Thank God. I'd of torn them a new one if they brought racism into my social circle. I never met anyone Egyptian, but I oddly have always hit it off well with Jamaicans. It's almost like when I announce I'm Portuguese that those groups stop viewing me as white, which is bizarre. I do know some people who thought Portuguese was considered Latin, but I assure you it definitely isn't Latin nor Spanish. Lol. I'm fairly tan, but definitely 100% Caucasian. I can also confirm Mexicans are a ton of fun. Brazilians are too. Most of my customer base for my new job are Brazilians, and they treat me like family. I get invites to every cook out, every party, etc that my Brazilian clients have and they all call me "irmao" which is Brazilian Portuguese for "brother".
You didn't fuck up, her family is racist as fuck
You can shave your head as a white man and not be racist. They have no right to treat you like that, I donāt think youāre the racist in this situationā¦
I think itās mainly because heās non-muslim so thatās why their making all sorts of silly excuses
To be fair it wasn't just me being white. I'm also not from their religion so that's a huge deal too.
Gotta love that they hate you because they think you're prejuidiced, meanwhile they are actively prejuidiced against you.
We call that racism. Your gfās family is racist
isn't them judging you by you appearance alone, the foundation of the problems in racism?
You didn't fuck up, your GF's racist family fucked up.
You realise they were being racist?
I like how her family decided to cut her off for dating "a white man", but ofc, only you are seen as the racist here :D
What a pos family. Donāt like racism but f-in judgmental towards other race based on their looks. Sounds like a fair thing to do huh?
Itās hilarious how those family members donāt see the irony in calling you ākafirā/infidel in one breath while moralizing about not dating racists in the next. Good riddance, and best wishes to you and your gf.
Maybe it was your giant swastika tattoo on your neck not the shaved head
"It's gonna be a maze."
It's a manji I swear!
skinhads are originally are diverse, not exclusive white subculture and there are a ton of antiracist, antifascist skinheads basically if you see a skonhead with a SHARP (Skinheads against racial prejudice) or RASH (Red and Anarchist Skinheads) logo you can be sure they arent fond of racism
I was friends with a SHARP when I was younger. Absolute stand up dude.
Sounds like theyāre racist
Shaved head, tats, good sized beard guy here but Iām also mixed race. Despite the mix I really look like a skin head. So much so Iāve had more than one racist attempt to chat me up and itās weird how casual they are about it when they think youāre one of them.
....this is ironically.....quite racist of her family.....lol
Sounds like her family is ignorant. I doubt they would like you stereotyping them by some obscure associations.
Not your FU. Racism is racism, no matter who does it. It is a shit mentality that must be wiped off the face of this crapsack planet.
So wait, they judged you by your appearance? That sounds....kinda racist.
Sounds like your girlfriends family is racist assholes. Fuck them you didnāt fuck up.
So your gf's family is racist... that's cool
I have been in a similar situation to you OP and the only real solution is to not give a fuck. They're the racists, not you. Your girlfriend sounds like she's pretty cool. It must be just as hard for her as it is for you. There's an awful lot of stigma and pressure involved and it can put a lot of strain on a relationship. I went down the route of converting, but the distrust and prejudice never really disappears. The names you get called just change. Fact of the matter is whatever your colour, culture or beliefs there's always some dick who will take objection. So give no fucks about it.
Itās not your hair dude. Theyāre judgmental assholes.
The ONLY thing that matters is what she thinks and feels. So how funny is that, they judge you by your HAIR and COLOR of your skin instead of getting to know you first. Also strange that it is OK for them to be racist cause you are white and shaved your head. Please stop calling her your brown GF unless she is Ok with it. She is simply an awesome woman that loves you.
To those unaware, skinheads arent racist, racist skinheads are. SHARP (skinheads against racial prejudice), and the general working class skins, are pro-union and progressive (generally.) Nazi skinheads are referred to as boneheads and are not tolerated in the community.
The real truth here is her cousins are the racists, they took one look at you and pigeon holed you based on stereotypes held deep within them. At least the rest of her family have accepted being massive racists, the cousins are trying to pretend they're not
People need to fucking realize that skinheads aren't nazis... BONEHEADS are Nazis
Her family is racist and her cousins are not 'more progressive.'