My primary document is a picture of Asian-Americans working on the transcontinental railroad. I chose this photo because I feel that a lot of the American history that involves the manipulation or taking advantage of other races, countries and/or cultures are concealed and hidden away.

A lot of textbooks that describe the making of the transcontinental railroad does not mention that many of its railroad workers were Asian-Americans who’ve immigrated over to California on the false hope of “gold mountain”. The false hope of digging gold and getting rich. These hopeful immigrants were then a big part of the success of the transcontinental railroad yet not many make a mention of such.

It’s deliberate even today that we are still finding ways or reasons to hide or put away certain history in our textbooks. A great and recent example would be the Texas Textbooks Controversy that happened just a few months ago. History should tell us about the past, not a vision of what others want us to perceive and see as the past.