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How do you share a negative? I dig into stories of South Asian life in Berkeley, CA, particularly 1890-1923, and share some of them on our Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour. For years, we’ve told people that future Pakistani PM Bhutto was elected to UCB student government in 1950…

I’ve seen the fact mentioned in bios, along with his key positions : a minimum wage of student works, opposition to the loyalty oath, and more integration of international students. The facts are backed up by one of his Indian Hindu friends who worked on his campaign (Zulfi My Friend, Piloo Mody)

Do I trust his friend, who says he was there and talks about his involvement, or do I trust the newspapers that did extensive day-to-day coverage of the 1949-1950 UC Berkeley student elections? The latter, obviously. Does that mean Bhutto’s biographers were wrong? His friend was forgetful?

And having found the documents, how do I share it? The fact that the future prime minister of Pakistan didn’t win a random student election is an incredibly minor detail, and I have no idea how to make sure future biographers and members of the public won’t repeat the error in their own writing.