The human figures in History Repeats Itself represent a historical cross section of refugee immigrants who have been banned from entry into the United States. From left to right, the figures represent an anonymous immigrant; a Muslim woman and infant, a Japanese American interned during World War II; a man whose yellow star recalls quotas denying entry to European Jews fleeing the Holocaust; and an African man and young girl who reflect the American history of slavery as well as immigration acts targeting Africans.
Clinard carves these powerful, nearly lifesize, men, women, and children from yellow pine structural beams reclaimed from a building in New Haven. Some bodies are left rough-hewn while others are smoothly sanded. She sculpts the faces and hands of the figures from clay that she fires. As realistic as the figures may seem, the artist does not use photographic sources. All of the faces were created from her imagination.