• There is almost zero Chinese presence in Tacoma because they were run out in 1885. The Chinese did not resist, that’s why there’s now a Chinese reconciliation memorial in Tacoma from its sister city Fuzhou.
  • History is important because it helps us understand change
  • History can help us separate myth from reality, myths can be both constructive and destructive. (What would a constructive myth be? A destructive one would obviously be stereotypes and things of that ilk).
  • History can help sharpen our perception of how bad or good certain times were. (probably because we can look at a certain era through a rose-colored lens but if many scholars from that time write, “living right now sucks” then maybe it wasn’t all that great).
  • Chico said that if you take in only a steady diet of negative things that have happened in history then you will never survive – too much negativity not enough bright-side.
  • “Tyranny of facts” is when history is examined by digging deep into facts (names, dates, places, etc). There’s nothing wrong with this necessarily but it can cloud one’s sight of the big picture and underlying context and theme – best to use facts to augment the “story” of history.
  • Until recently, the history of AAPI peoples wasn’t really told in America unless you were a scholar or part of that group. These people are also Americans however and therefore help make America what it is so injecting their history into the classroom might helps us all to understand each other better.