Syracuse Ska Forum

Ok, I might be a redneck living out in Oneida, but I have fun with the ska music and wear my checkered suspenders with pride. However most people come up to me and ask if I like racing. I just tell them no, that the checkers represent something else. I don't want to get into a ten minute explaination about ska. I have not had anyone at work or in the local area ask me about being a ska fan. Does anyone else have this problem with wearing checkered accessories?

No.

But just be all like...



"A FINAL WORD, WAIT, IT'S NOT A CALL TO ACTION
WE AINT NO SECT, NO, THIS AINT NO f*ck FACTION
UNITY UNITY UNITY YOU'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE.
THIS TIME IT'S NOT EXCLUSIVE, WE WANT TO STOP A WARRRRR


STOP THIS... WARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
STOP THIS... WARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"



They'll get the hint, or run away in terror... either works out well for you.

It totally ruined the whole vibe of that by censoring my f-bomb.

I usually explain it stands for racial unity and I find that usually people have nothing to say in response to that. It seems to take them off-guard.

When I have more time, I'll go into the whole 2-Tone Movement extended monologe. Ask anyone who's heard it.

I've never really gotten into the whole wearing checkered appariel thing. Then again, I don't really get into much when it comes to fashion.

I'm more of a comfy jeans/khakis, black band t-shirt, hemp beads silver and torquiose jewelery, hair down or braided with feathers in it, little to no make up, sandals or preferably no shoes at all, kind of girl. I like to be comfortable with what I'm wearing and in my appearance. I am who I am and I don't really care what anyone else thinks of me or what I look like. I look good for myself and no one else. Make sense?

Being into ska isn't all about the look, the checkers, or the skanking. It's enjoying the music and having a good time. It's meeting new people and making friends with people you normally would never have found otherwise.

At least, that's what it is for me. I do it for the love of music.

Aww, I just made myself feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Hehe.

People take unity too far though. There is a difference between unity and liking everybody.

Hmmm. To me, Unity is focusing on what we have in common and not on what differences we have. I'm not sure we have to necessarily like each other to accomplish that, but I fail to see how we pull it off if we hate each other ...

I find Unity much easier to proclaim then to live. And I think most observers would credit the 2-Tone Movement with creating more actual Unity than the Punk Movement in England that arose about the same time. One seemed more about talking the talk and the other with walking the walk. Maybe that's too harsh, but to me, ska was actually more revolutionary than punk at that point, because ska was actually creating racial unity while punk was mostly just talking about it.

Be interested what others think of that ...

hey, i just want to throw something out there that someone pointed out to me and seems like an interesting point.

So, checkers are supposed to be a representation of racial unity, and on the surface that makes sense right?


Look again though. In reality, the checkers are segregated. Black is separated from white and white from black. They are not actually united, they are in their distinct boxes. If interpretted incorrectly, it could actually seem like checkers are representing segregation rather than unity.

Sorry, thought i'd throw it out there and see what people thought, cause i didn't really know how to react when the person said that to me.

To me it is basically you can dislike somebody, buy you don't do it because of rascism, sexism or any of that. I am not going to like everybody, or even most people, but I will do it because they are annoying, stupid or just plain suck, not because they are black.

Huh????? The black and white are intertwined EQUALLY. The only other way to represent what you're saying is to go to grey, which is to blur any distinction of black or white at all. While there is certainly an argument to be made for no racial distinctions, it tends to be highly muted because its all too often an argument made by the dominant group to justify pretending other groups don't exist.

When true unity exists, then the distinctions won't matter. But we're quite a ways from that yet ...



I think the important dividing line here is between LIKING and RESPECT. You can dislike someone for almost any reason, but still respect them as a fellow human being.

Does that make any sense?