Originally appeared on Wear Your Voice on 29 November 2017

Recently, I was involved in a Facebook “discussion” in which there was a majority of people (mostly white but also some white-passing) who were arguing that when people see a skinhead, they shouldn’t automatically assume that they’re a neo-Nazi or even racist. One of the biggest non-white supporters of this theory was a white-passing Indigenous person and a light-skinned Black man. Both had grown up seeped in punk and rudeboy culture and saw the relation between those (mostly) harmless subcultures and the skinhead subculture. But what they all failed to realise was that most people — particularly visibly non-white people like me — don’t have the luxury to give any skinhead the benefit of the doubt.

Though the origins of the skinhead subculture have nothing to (directly*) do with racism, there was a bunch of literal neo-Nazis who ruined it for the rest and the scaremongering by the mass media in the ‘60s and ‘70s didn’t help; since then, the average person is likely to think “Nazi” when you say the word “skinhead.” I can see the point of these defenders of non-racist skinheads in a time before Trump, but now, their undying defence of skinheads seems not only misguided but ignorant and privileged as fuck.

I remember when I was a kid and American History X came out; I remember not even being able to sit through it all because it was so scary to me: the idea of literal Nazis in my lifetime seemed like the ultimate nightmare — and I’m not even Jewish but knew enough history to know that my Pakistani family and I would’ve been targeted by the Nazis as well. Fast-forward to modern day when literal Nazis are openly and unashamedly marching in cities in America (and becoming emboldened in other countries, including quaint li’l Canada), and I’m perpetually afraid of every white person I see because I can’t tell if they’re an ally or a white supremacist who is slowly becoming emboldened.

People tend to think that Canada is somehow better than the United States of America when it comes to things like racism. They like to think that because we have a Liberal national leader and all sorts of cute socialist ideas like universal healthcare and government-assisted loans for postsecondary education we’re too progressive to deal with old-fashioned problems like racism. And most (white or white-passing) Canadians will deny that we have any sort of racism problem, especially in our major cities — but they’re wrong.

Right after Trump was elected in the U.S., Conservative party MP Kellie Leitch sent out an email to Conservative voters basically saying that she intended to bring Trump’s ideas to Canada. There were white supremacist marches and rallies planned in the City of Toronto as well; there was a warning going around that there were razor blades hidden behind white supremacist posters on the University of Toronto’s downtown campus; and most recently, there was an anti-Trudeau rally to be held, which was being organized by known white supremacists in the city.

I’ve lived in this city since I was 8 and have never, ever felt unsafe in it — until this year. This year, I’ve been wary of everyone who isn’t a visible IBPOC. When I would see a group of white men standing together, I would walk on by, but now a chill runs down my back and I speed up and pray to the God I don’t really believe in that they won’t notice me. So, the white(-passing), punk-loving folks who think I shouldn’t judge a skinhead by their fashion will have to excuse me if I decide not to give every white person with a shaved head and black Doc Martens (with red laces) the benefit of the doubt. They’ll have to excuse me if my first thought isn’t “Oh, well maybe they’re a SHARP [Skinhead Against Racial Prejudice] and are just expressing themselves.”

In this Facebook “discussion,” I did say that if a visible person of colour was dressed in skinhead fashion I wouldn’t be as wary, but I’ve revised that opinion since I learned that there were non-white skinheads (a part of skinhead culture was appropriated from Jamaican rudeboy culture after all) and that South Asians were (or maybe still are) prime targets for neo-Nazis and that “paki bashing” was a pastime for white and Black skinheads in 1960s Britain. So, I’m now wary of anyone who dresses in skinhead fashions, regardless of whether they’re harmless.

However, I truly think that if you’re a skinhead who’s not a racist but just like the culture or the fashions, you should eschew them considering the political climate right now. Your right to express yourself through your clothing is not nearly as important as IBPOC feeling safe in their own cities. If you’re truly an ally and really want to end racism in the world, you can start by not habitually paralyzing us with fear by dressing like someone right out of American History X. It’ll be no skin off your back and it’ll help us feel less isolated and allow us to put our guards down just a little.

This is what being an ally is, after all: giving up some of your privileges so that the underprivileged can feel safer and speak louder without fear of retribution.

*I say indirectly because the subculture was started by a bunch of working-class, white British youth and though their first intention wasn’t to be racist, I highly doubt that they were open to non-white folk (particularly South Asians) joining in their movement.