Fredrick D. Kakinami Cloyd
Sept 23, 2014 12:08:44 GMT -8
Post by Admin on Sept 23, 2014 12:08:44 GMT -8
Source: waterchildren.wordpress.com/about/
My name is Fredrick D. Kakinami Cloyd.
I tell stories and reflect
through a postcolonial lens, my histories are linked with other histories (like everyone’s), in relation to social justice, militarism, race, gender, sexuality, class, caste,
transnational aspects of identity-making, trauma, violence, healing and resistance.
I believe that lament is a needed aspect of social justice work, alongside empowerment, knowledge, accountability.
My postings are meant to point and intervene into EFFECTS and tactics and strategies of thinking toward social justice. My points are to lay-out any “truth” of history.
What are the effects of our actions in doing social justice and thinking of ways for social change? My posts must be read as self-reflexive, intervening positionings and motions, mingling with the readers’. I do not oppose or deny, but to think with and through all points of contact. Every point of discussion is but the tiniest partial point to make change and justice.
This is dedicated to my mother and father, and all of my ancestors, and all those working on behalf of peace, social justice, understanding, thinking, and healing. With my heritage from African, African-American, Japanese, Chinese, Austrian, and Cherokee identities, I write this work.
Often the labels for me become the following:
Amerasian, Black-Japanese, Black-Asian, Transnational Black-Japanese, Blasian, War Baby, War Child, Postwar Child, Black Amerasian, Black-Japanese Amerasian, Black, Asian, Mixed Race, Multiracial, Biracial, Man, Son. One of a twin, Military Brat, Son of a Soldier, Negro, Queer, Black, Asian, Asian-American. Nowadays there are new terms like: Old, elder, Baby Boomer, Relic. Then there are the many pejoratives (you can think of those or research them on your own). These labels are not-me, yet they are most definitely me. Depending.
My father is so-called: African-American.
Yet he is also Black-Native-American, Cherokee-Black, Black-Cherokee, Black-White Cherokee, African-American/Native-American/White, Black, Black-White-Native-Am, Black mixed, African-American, Negro, Negroid, Occupation soldier, Black-American Occupation soldier, Korean War veteran, Vietnam War veteran, American, Military man, American War Veteran, American serviceman, African-American Pacific Wars Veteran. Father. Dad. You probably already know the pejorative names he would be called.
My mother is so-called:
Japanese. Japanese-Chinese. Asian. Japanese-Chinese-Austrian. Asian-White mixed. War Bride. Woman. Asian woman, Asian Bride, Immigrant, Soldier’s Wife, Mother of a Mixed-Race Child, Bride of a Black. Think of all the names she would’ve been called to hurt her.
None of these labels describe me or my family or ancestors. They point to how difference is divided into categories, and point to certain histories, legacies, places, life, dominations and resistances, survival and empowerment. I was born in 1955 in Japan. I began speaking English at 5 years old, after entering an American military base kindergarten in Japan. By the time I was 10 years old, I spoke both my native Japanese language and English fluently (well….English about 90 percent).
I am transnational, transcultural, a military son, an immigrant, mixed, solidly all.
Living different lives, different lands, different worlds, different languages, different grooves.
Living Tokyo, Nara, Japan. And: Albuquerque New Mexico, Honolulu Hawaii, Halawa and Aiea Hawaii, Detroit Michigan, Nashville Tennessee, Cleveland Ohio, Los Angeles and Hollywood and Long Beach California, Chicago Illinois, Rochester and Rochester Zen Center New York, Denver Colorado, Seattle Washington and as of now in San Francisco California–all living and live now through me.
I am not a historian, not a sociologist, not an expert, not an armchair thinker, not a legal expert. Yet these labels are all part of an array, a repertoire, since I make use of my life as: scholar-activist, cultural anthropologist, ethnographer, writer, musician, former-athlete, former sports coach, postcolonial and post-structural thinker, Zen Buddhist practitioner, intercultural and cross-cultural consultant, social justice analyst, traveler, guy with a sweet-tooth and a love of food from different cultures (and whose heart is very Japanese and Chinese; Black-American/Native-American).
As researcher, community-building advocate, postcolonial feminist advocate, as doctoral student, I researched in Duisburg, Germany; Amsterdam and Amersfoort, Netherlands; London, England; Swansea and Mumbles, Wales; Ankara, Istanbul, Tunceli in Turkey. I walked in gun-fire mountains, spoke with rebels and activists from different walks of life, spoke with diaspora and lived with them in Europe; I attended meetings and festivals, laughing and arguing and listening and taking notes, reflecting, thinking, with Kurds, Dersimlis, Turks, Armenians, and Kurdish-Americans in their communities in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, New York, San Francisco, San Mateo, Burlingame, Boston.
Blood. Sweat. Belly laughs. Tears. Scars. Self-reflections. Being Bullied and Bullying. Violations and violences.
Trauma. Loneliness and heartache. Determination and survival. Annihilation and self-annihilation.
Questions. Smiles. Love and loves. Mysteries. Intellect and Heart.
Justice and Assimilation. Limitations and Liberation.
Colored and White. Yellow and Black. Red.
Blue skies. Dangerous Waves. Crossing Boundaries and divisions. Functioning of power. Recognizing life and death that has come, that is now, that is to come.
I am available for you, your group, and/or institution, for instruction, multimedia presentations, discussions and research/organizational facilitation.
I received an M.A. in Social Cultural Anthropology and Social Transformation.
The website for my book is swordglint.wix.com/waterchildren
I also have a personal blogsite which is more free-floating if you want to visit AINOKO at ainoko.wordpress.com/
To reach Fredrick for your course, meeting, project, organization or institution, email: fredrickdc@gmail.com
My name is Fredrick D. Kakinami Cloyd.
I tell stories and reflect
through a postcolonial lens, my histories are linked with other histories (like everyone’s), in relation to social justice, militarism, race, gender, sexuality, class, caste,
transnational aspects of identity-making, trauma, violence, healing and resistance.
I believe that lament is a needed aspect of social justice work, alongside empowerment, knowledge, accountability.
My postings are meant to point and intervene into EFFECTS and tactics and strategies of thinking toward social justice. My points are to lay-out any “truth” of history.
What are the effects of our actions in doing social justice and thinking of ways for social change? My posts must be read as self-reflexive, intervening positionings and motions, mingling with the readers’. I do not oppose or deny, but to think with and through all points of contact. Every point of discussion is but the tiniest partial point to make change and justice.
This is dedicated to my mother and father, and all of my ancestors, and all those working on behalf of peace, social justice, understanding, thinking, and healing. With my heritage from African, African-American, Japanese, Chinese, Austrian, and Cherokee identities, I write this work.
Often the labels for me become the following:
Amerasian, Black-Japanese, Black-Asian, Transnational Black-Japanese, Blasian, War Baby, War Child, Postwar Child, Black Amerasian, Black-Japanese Amerasian, Black, Asian, Mixed Race, Multiracial, Biracial, Man, Son. One of a twin, Military Brat, Son of a Soldier, Negro, Queer, Black, Asian, Asian-American. Nowadays there are new terms like: Old, elder, Baby Boomer, Relic. Then there are the many pejoratives (you can think of those or research them on your own). These labels are not-me, yet they are most definitely me. Depending.
My father is so-called: African-American.
Yet he is also Black-Native-American, Cherokee-Black, Black-Cherokee, Black-White Cherokee, African-American/Native-American/White, Black, Black-White-Native-Am, Black mixed, African-American, Negro, Negroid, Occupation soldier, Black-American Occupation soldier, Korean War veteran, Vietnam War veteran, American, Military man, American War Veteran, American serviceman, African-American Pacific Wars Veteran. Father. Dad. You probably already know the pejorative names he would be called.
My mother is so-called:
Japanese. Japanese-Chinese. Asian. Japanese-Chinese-Austrian. Asian-White mixed. War Bride. Woman. Asian woman, Asian Bride, Immigrant, Soldier’s Wife, Mother of a Mixed-Race Child, Bride of a Black. Think of all the names she would’ve been called to hurt her.
None of these labels describe me or my family or ancestors. They point to how difference is divided into categories, and point to certain histories, legacies, places, life, dominations and resistances, survival and empowerment. I was born in 1955 in Japan. I began speaking English at 5 years old, after entering an American military base kindergarten in Japan. By the time I was 10 years old, I spoke both my native Japanese language and English fluently (well….English about 90 percent).
I am transnational, transcultural, a military son, an immigrant, mixed, solidly all.
Living different lives, different lands, different worlds, different languages, different grooves.
Living Tokyo, Nara, Japan. And: Albuquerque New Mexico, Honolulu Hawaii, Halawa and Aiea Hawaii, Detroit Michigan, Nashville Tennessee, Cleveland Ohio, Los Angeles and Hollywood and Long Beach California, Chicago Illinois, Rochester and Rochester Zen Center New York, Denver Colorado, Seattle Washington and as of now in San Francisco California–all living and live now through me.
I am not a historian, not a sociologist, not an expert, not an armchair thinker, not a legal expert. Yet these labels are all part of an array, a repertoire, since I make use of my life as: scholar-activist, cultural anthropologist, ethnographer, writer, musician, former-athlete, former sports coach, postcolonial and post-structural thinker, Zen Buddhist practitioner, intercultural and cross-cultural consultant, social justice analyst, traveler, guy with a sweet-tooth and a love of food from different cultures (and whose heart is very Japanese and Chinese; Black-American/Native-American).
As researcher, community-building advocate, postcolonial feminist advocate, as doctoral student, I researched in Duisburg, Germany; Amsterdam and Amersfoort, Netherlands; London, England; Swansea and Mumbles, Wales; Ankara, Istanbul, Tunceli in Turkey. I walked in gun-fire mountains, spoke with rebels and activists from different walks of life, spoke with diaspora and lived with them in Europe; I attended meetings and festivals, laughing and arguing and listening and taking notes, reflecting, thinking, with Kurds, Dersimlis, Turks, Armenians, and Kurdish-Americans in their communities in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, New York, San Francisco, San Mateo, Burlingame, Boston.
Blood. Sweat. Belly laughs. Tears. Scars. Self-reflections. Being Bullied and Bullying. Violations and violences.
Trauma. Loneliness and heartache. Determination and survival. Annihilation and self-annihilation.
Questions. Smiles. Love and loves. Mysteries. Intellect and Heart.
Justice and Assimilation. Limitations and Liberation.
Colored and White. Yellow and Black. Red.
Blue skies. Dangerous Waves. Crossing Boundaries and divisions. Functioning of power. Recognizing life and death that has come, that is now, that is to come.
I am available for you, your group, and/or institution, for instruction, multimedia presentations, discussions and research/organizational facilitation.
I received an M.A. in Social Cultural Anthropology and Social Transformation.
The website for my book is swordglint.wix.com/waterchildren
I also have a personal blogsite which is more free-floating if you want to visit AINOKO at ainoko.wordpress.com/
To reach Fredrick for your course, meeting, project, organization or institution, email: fredrickdc@gmail.com