Schema Magazine

Over the past six years we've tried really hard to describe what Schema Magazine is all about. We've used various descriptions—even had to create new terms like ethnic cool.

To be honest, we've never been satisfied.

The thing is, the identity we are trying to express, is new. We know intuitively what we mean, but we don't yet have the popular language or the concepts to really describe it. In fact, that's why Schema Magazine is so necessary: we've been stuck using 1970's language and ideas to talk about our fluid and complexly multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and sometimes transnational identities.

We're not "caught between cultures", but moving through them. We're not hybrids or simply bi-racial. We're more complicated than that. If anything we're "blended." So here's another attempt.

Schema Magazine is a blend of pop-culture and identity, from the perspective of being 1.5-, 2nd-generation and beyond.

It's not slick at all, but we hope it's clearer. If these terms are new to you, here's what they mean: 1.5-gens are those who immigrated as young children and have at least one-parent born outside of . 2nd-gens are those who are born in, Canada for example, and have at least one foreign-born parent.

Schema Magazine is a reflection of the new Canadian mainstream, as expressed in the sensibilities of 1.5-, 2nd- and sometimes 3rd-generation, mixed-race, transnational and urban-living Canadians between the ages of 18 and 35.

We've described this group and ourselves as "Cultural Navigators", because of a distinct ability to effortlessly move through a complex web of cultures.

We're also more than ethnic. We're very comfortable with our ethnic ancestry, but at the same time we're a big part of the mainstream collective.

After all, Canada is a messy, invigorating polyglot of mongrels, pure-breeds and race-mixers.

But we are also more than that. More than Bruce Lee. More than Bob Marley. More than Bollywood.

Like you, we belong to no one tribe. You're naan, adobo and bubble tea. You are comfortable in your skin and comfortable with other skins marching to the beats of their own drums. Or tablas. Or djembes. Constantly moving, your life is about bursting through ceilings and taking diversity with you.

If this is you, let us know how you're at the cutting edge of multiculturalism.

The Story of Schema »
The underlying concepts: Schema and Cultural Navigators »

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