Mixed Race Studies

Mixed-race models ignored by British fashion industry

The Independent
2010-10-03

Emily Dugan

They are under-represented on the catwalk – so they are holding their own glamorous contest

From triumph in the White House to Olympic and Formula One garlands, via just about every stage and screen, mixed-race people have made massive leaps forward in the past decade: everywhere, it seems, except in British fashion.

Though there is no shortage of glamorous mixed-race celebrities in public life – think Lewis Hamilton, his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, or Thandie Newton – it’s quite a different story on the UK’s catwalks. Britain’s first modelling contest exclusively for mixed-race entrants will take place later this month amid accusations that the fashion industry is overlooking them because they are too hard to pigeonhole.

The competition, set up by Mix-d, a social enterprise aimed at tackling racism, will allow only entrants who have parents of different racial backgrounds. Bradley Lincoln, the charity’s founder and a judge in the Mix-d: Face 2010 final on 30 October, said: “I noticed that there was a problem in the fashion industry for mixed-race models who weren’t seen as black enough to be black and not white enough to be white. I don’t think it’s conscious; [the industry] will pick what they like and think is current and mixed-race models often aren’t what they think of.”…

…Researchers believe the benefits of being from different races go far beyond just good looks. Dr Michael Lewis, lead researcher in the Cardiff University study, said: “There is evidence, albeit anecdotal, that the impact [of being mixed race] goes beyond just attractiveness. This comes from the observation that, although mixed-race people make up a small proportion of the population, they are over-represented at the top level of a number of meritocratic professions, such as acting with Halle Berry, Formula One racing with Lewis Hamilton and, of course, politics with Barack Obama.”…

Read the entire article here.

Brave new world: The complicated side-effects of Britain’s mixed-race households

The Independent (UK)
2009-08-22

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Bev is beautiful, with silky black skin and thick hair she ties in a bunch at the top, spurting like a fountain. At 15, her face reminds me of the young and feisty Winnie Mandela. Dressed in denim, she is wearing lots of African bracelets and rings on her ears. And, incongruously, pearls, several strings looped around her high neck. Her face changes like an English summer – bright and sunny one minute, then suddenly dark, brooding and sometimes stormy. She wants to talk, she tells me, otherwise she will go crazy. And what Bev tells me is a part of one of the least reported stories of family life in modern Britain, remarkable and complex, and perpetually shifting.

“My family is messy,” she explains. “There’s been divorce, remarrying, separation, step-parents. It’s hard to talk about that when we are all trying to be polite, faking it all the time. I was in a mood the other day – you know, you get into a mood. My mum came into my room, held my elbow so hard it hurt, and whispered: ‘You’ll lose me this man, too, you stupid girl.’

“Then there is RACE!” she continues. “We are black-and-white and inbetweenies, but no one mentions that either. We have to pretend that mum’s latest guy is not white, and I am not brown, and there isn’t an issue here.”

She doesn’t even take a breath as all this tumbles out. Is he unkind to her? I ask gently

“No, he’s OK, I mean doesn’t hit me or anything. But he has no idea. Comes from Norfolk or something. My mum loves all that – his fancy accent and that. She even went to Wimbledon ‘cos he gets free tickets, and then both of them were moaning about Serena and Venus having a pushy dad, and my mum says something horrible about my ex-dad, and whitie nodded – he always nods, like Noddy. As soon as I have done my GCSEs I am out of here.”

This country has more mixed-race families than any other in Europe. According to the latest social research, one in 10 young Britons lives in a mixed-race household and the number of bi-racial children is growing faster than any other “ethnic minority” group. We also have high divorce rates and – increasingly – step-families. Put all these factors together and you get a newish phenomenon: the rise of the mixed-race step-family. Social services, counsellors and academic researchers have not yet caught up with this social development. And those of us who find ourselves in these reconstituted multi-racial families make it up as we go along. I guess Bev’s mum and step-dad are having to do just that…

Read the entire article here.