The Skinhead phenomenon began in the industrial cities of 1960s Britain as a working class movement strongly marked by contempt for hippies and middle-class youth. Though drugs and violence were always part of the Skinhead scene, Skinheads originally embraced Afro-Caribbean music and were of different races. But British fascists were able to precipitate a split in the movement between racist and antiracist elements — a split that has endured to the present day, both in Britain and in the United States, where Skins arrived in the early 1980s. Racist Skins are referred to by their enemies as "boneheads." Antiracist Skins are often referred to as SHARPS, a reference to a now essentially defunct group known as Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice.

Racist Skinheads in the U.S., like those in other countries, often operate in small "crews" that move from city to city with some regularity.