Anarchist historian Spencer Beswick looks back on the intersection of queerness and anarchism within the past 40 years. Anarchists grappled with the intersection of queerness and anarchism as part of a broader transformation of the US anarchist movement in the 1980s-1990s. Against gay assimilationism on one side and class reductionism on the other, radicals began...

Anarchist historian Spencer Beswick looks back on the intersection of queerness and anarchism within the past 40 years.

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  • technomad@slrpnk.netEnglish
    5·
    9 months ago

    I’m having a hard time imagining how the terminology ‘anti-racist skinheads’ makes sense. Isn’t that some kind of oxymoron?

    Skinhead, by it’s definition is a slang term for white supremacy right? White supremacy is racist, therefore skinheads=racist, right?

    Am I missing something?

    • ThatFembyWho@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      23·
      9 months ago

      Yes, you are missing something kinda important.

      Skinheads were not originally associated with racism, it was a working-class counterculture movement. In fact it was quite diverse in its influences. I would argue it still is.

      Only later did a far-right subset emerge and unfortunately that is what people associate with the term “skinheads” because they caused the most trouble.

      • technomad@slrpnk.netEnglish
        8·
        9 months ago

        Thanks for the explanation.

        It’s a shame that is what ended up sticking then, and that the terminology couldn’t have been associated with something better. In my mind, it’s impossible to think of them in any other context. That is the default definition that I have.

        • taanegl@lemmy.world
          10·
          9 months ago

          It’s what fascist racists do. They co-opt and appropriate everything. The Nazis pretended to be socialist, the Klu Klux Klan just copy pasted bits and pieces of various different European cultures, heck even country had some edge and humanity to it, until it got homogenised by yee olde nationalism.

          Skinheads need to come back if you ask me. Same clothes, same haircut, same culture, just as a “fuck you” to whatever status quo you live by. People pretending they’re so different, when really everybody is the same.

          That was the point to begin with.

    • DessertStorms@kbin.social
      9·
      9 months ago

      Am I missing something?

      yes:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinhead

      TL;DR:

      A skinhead or skin is a member of a subculture that originated among working-class youths in London, England, in the 1960s. It soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working-class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in the late 1970s. Motivated by social alienation and working-class solidarity, skinheads are defined by their close-cropped or shaven heads and working-class clothing such as Dr. Martens and steel toe work boots, braces, high rise and varying length straight-leg jeans, and button-down collar shirts, usually slim fitting in check or plain. The movement reached a peak at the end of the 1960s, experienced a revival in the 1980s, and, since then, has endured in multiple contexts worldwide.

    • guillem@aussie.zone
      9·
      9 months ago

      It’s has practically become that by definition because the far right successfully appropriated the skinhead aesthetics. Or almost. Look into the SHARP.

    • punkisundead [they/them]@slrpnk.netOPMEnglish
      9·
      9 months ago

      Huh? I dont really understand what you mean and dont really see the connection with the text.

      In case you want to debate anarchist ideas or have questions about anarchism, please make that more clear.

      Edit: Maybe I get what you mean and I dont agree. When a popular movement manages to abolish the state / goverment, why would pro Cartel gangs be able to just take over? Its not like the popular movement that was able to defeat the state just stops existing.