Talk:Harlem Riot of 1935

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A fact from Harlem Riot of 1935 appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 15 April 2008.

[edit] "White-owned properties"?

Edited first sentence, 'mostly to white-owned properties' adds an unnecessary racial detail- does it matter whose property got damaged? Is damage to white-owned properties somehow worse than to those owned by black people? Not claiming that the previous phrasing explicitly stated that, but it left the (unnecessary) possibility of it being implied. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.27.107.103 (talk • contribs) 15:22, 15 April 2008

I used the phrase "mostly to white-owned properties" as it appears in the first listed reference, "Civil Rights: An A-to-Z Reference..." (p.202):

They caused an estimated $2 million worth of damage, mostly to white-owned properties.

I didn't mean to imply what you describe, and I'm sure the authors of that book didn't mean to either. Can you suggest a way to rephrase it so that it's still clear that businesses were targeted on the basis of whether or not the owners were African-American? Because that is a pertinent detail of this riot. -- Shunpiker (talk) 19:45, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Oh of course, I didn't mean for a second to accuse anyone- it's clear it wasn't intentional, but it just jarred with me when I first read it; and I imagined how easily a malign interpretation could be placed on the phrase. Perhaps 'an estimated $2 million worth of damage to property, with African-American homes and businesses understandably spared the worst of the violence' would do? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.27.107.103 (talk) 21:47, 15 April 2008 (UTC)