CR's August 7, 2026 Times Standard Article--CR Will Not be Complicit in the Ideological Rewriting of our Collective History

Published on Aug 4 2026

Recently, I attended a performance of Echoes of Eureka, a choir opera composed by Eric Tuan, that told the Chinese expulsion story through the character of Charley Wei Lium, a young Chinese immigrant who settled in Eureka in the 1880s before becoming one of the roughly 300 Chinese residents driven out of Humboldt County in 1885. 

In February of that year, the city of Eureka forcibly expelled Humboldt County’s Chinese residents, marking one of the two darkest episodes in the county’s history. The other was the massacre and forced displacement of the Wiyot people who had called this area home for a millennium. One was an act of mass murder; the other a campaign of ethnic cleansing. The expulsion would earn Eureka the dubious distinction of giving its name to the "Eureka Method," a model for forcibly removing Chinese communities that was replicated in towns across the West. 

The opera, wonderfully performed by Finnish youth choir Vox Aurea, shed light on the xenophobia against immigrants, the anti-Chinese sentiment in our area and the harassment, racism, and discrimination they faced. The choir also lent their beautiful voices to telling the story of resilience and solidarity when the Chinese community came together to sue the city of Eureka for damages. Although they ultimately did not win in court, their determination to fight was powerful.

Perhaps the most remarkable part of this story is that composer Eric Tuan, a lifelong Californian of Chinese descent, had never heard of the event until he read Jean Pfaelzer's book Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans. If Eric could reach adulthood without learning about one of California's most significant episodes of anti-Chinese aggression, it raises an uncomfortable question: What other histories have been erased?

As George Santayana said, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” That is why debates over who tells our history matter. History is not merely a collection of facts. It shapes how we understand ourselves, our communities, and our obligations to one another.

Recently, President Trump issued an executive order titled Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian Institution claiming that the Smithsonian cannot be trusted to tell America’s story with honesty and accuracy. The order directs federal agencies to install signs and exhibits outside the National Museum of American History warning the public about what the administration describes as “inaccurate information presented in the Museum” and suggesting other venues where, in their view, American history is better presented. 

The Trump Administration’s executive order is the latest move in the struggle to decide who gets to tell the true story of America. Throughout history, authoritarian regimes have fought to control the historical record by restricting the free flow of information and suppressing uncomfortable histories.

What role does higher education have in advocating for truth? I believe that we have a responsibility to actively speak out against falsehoods and stand alongside faculty, historians, museums, libraries, and archives entrusted with preserving our shared history.

College of the Redwoods cannot evade its responsibility to protect academic freedom. Instead, we must underscore the role of truth-telling in promoting justice, democracy, and equity in both educational and societal domains. 

We know that our understanding of the past is not truly objective but rather evolves through a process influenced by power dynamics, historical context, and social agreements about meaning. As CR moves forward, we will continue to examine the complexities of truth-telling within the academic context, emphasizing the importance of democratic and inclusive approaches to history. To do otherwise is to support the reactionary forces that use disinformation and manipulative tactics to suppress historical truths substantiated by evidence.

I further suggest that higher education’s responsibility is to educate people in what it is to have worthy and reliable self-trust in their own morality. I wonder if the Humboldt County community of the past would have expelled their Chinese neighbors if the people had the moral courage to resist the mob and speak out against ethnic cleansing of the county even if those positions might have been unpopular, risky, or unsafe.

The tragedy of the Chinese expulsion is not simply that it happened. It is that for generations, so many of us never learned it happened at all. As Nelson Mandela said, education has the power to “break barriers, challenge inequality, and transform societies.” 

CR will not be complicit in the ideological rewriting of our collective history, in the repression of individual thought, nor in silencing the voices who stand against the narratives promulgated by autocratic governments. That is why higher education must continue to ask difficult questions, preserve challenging histories, and teach students to bravely confront the past honestly. We cannot learn from a history we choose not to remember.