Friday, December 10, 2004

• We have “Generation EA”, the UK has “Generation M”

  JC

  The UK’s New Statesman interviews Kwame Kwei-Armah about his new play, Fix Up. It’s interesting to see this parallel discussion going on outside of the US.

   

  Is mixed race the new black? Now that black culture is positively cool - think hip-hop, baggy trousers and Blinglish - what will be the next battle in race relations? Kwame Kwei-Armah - the actor and playwright who is also a frontman for the BBC's new Culture Show - thinks it will indeed be mixed race, which is a subject in his new play, Fix Up, opening soon at the National Theatre.

   

  "I believe that mixed-race identity has been a sleeping issue," he says. "But in the next five to ten years, it will be huge within the black community." After all, he argues, the fastest-growing section of the population is mixed race. And yet the very idea of it encourages prejudice. "We talk about people of dual heritage being half of one and half of another - white society sees them as black, and blacks see them as close to white. But in places such as Liverpool, there are people whose families have been mixed race for generations, so they can't just be half and half."

   

  Some mixed-race youth already refer to themselves as "Generation M" or the "remix generation", and ad campaigns for brands such as Louis Vuitton and Lancome use models with racially indeterminate features - the ambiguous look appeals to a wider audience.

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