<Begin Segment 20>

BN: Is there anything that, if you could talk to a twenty-year-old college student who was writing something about Gidra or discovering it in their Asian American Studies class? What would you want them to know, if anything?

JF: Yeah. That I kind of wish there was another Gidra happening now. I'm sure it'd be a lot different than ours. I think ours was progressive for its time, but maybe wasn't as inclusive as it would be now if it were resurrected. Today, the conditions are a lot different. There are similarities, of course, but I think that term, "Asian American" is used, so widespread, I guess back when the paper was there, we felt it represented a statement against, kind of a stance against the status quo. It wasn't so much that ethnically you're an Asian American, you share this history of the way minority people are treated in the United States. And because of that, that makes you Asian American. You have to understand that historical mistreatment your peoples in order to be called an Asian American, you just don't get it because you have to be Chinese, Japanese, Korean, whatever. It's more of an understanding, the knowledge of your people's history that makes you Asian American. So in that way, it's changed. It's become much looser.

BN: Right, it's lost the political meaning, the descriptive term.

JF: Yes. It did have a political impact.

BN: Absolutely.

JF: Because before, we were "Oriental," right? Which I don't know where that came from. Yeah, yeah, that aspect, I think, is missing, and I would like to see a new Gidra start to bring it back. Who knows? Maybe Michael or Daniel. [Laughs]

BN: There have been attempts, periodic attempts to revive Gidra. There was a 2001, and there is one, there is a Gidra now.

JF: Oh, wow.

BN: I think Mike was saying they have the tacit approval to use the name.

JF: Okay. Did you know, speaking of current events involving Gidra, Richard Tokunaga, who is famous for doing his self-portrait, which we used on a cover, and it's being used, I think, by the Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival a couple of years ago, has their main logo, and now the Puma shoe company, or athletic clothing company, they have a designer, I can't remember his name, Jeff something -- that's the only reason why I remember the designer -- he contacted Mike, and Mike contacted a few of us to come to an agreement about this relationship with Puma athletic clothing company. So Richard Tokunaga just two days ago sent me an email that showed some of the print publications featuring his self-portrait, which is on, I think, a March '73 issue, something like that. And some of the other designs of Gidra origin that are appearing on tennis shoes and t-shirts by Puma, unbelievable.

BN: Who would have thought?

JF: Yeah. So we wanted to make sure that we weren't going to be seen as sellouts, because that would be terrible.

BN: Probably not going to be the last. But anyway...

JF: So I just wanted to add, no money was exchanged in that relationship, except to go to, I think, a fund that will be drawn from and directed to different Asian American community organizations. At least that's what Mike told us, so right on Mike. So our conscience was sated so we can sleep.

BN: Okay, well, that's the main things I wanted to cover. So thank you very much. Is there anything you would like to mention that we haven't covered?

JF: No, not really.

BN: Great, thank you.

JF: Okay, thank you, Brian.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.