Talk:Seattle riot of 1886
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An entry from Seattle riot of 1886 appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 25 March 2007. |
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[edit] A Different Title For The Event?
Doesn't the title of this ugly chapter of local Seattle-Tacoma area (and general West Coast American) history need an update? I mean the title "Seattle riot of 1886" white washes the racist nature of the event and the fact that an entire community was expelled from the Seattle-Tacoma area, first in Tacoma in 1885 and then in Seattle in 1886, on the basis on their nationality. It doesn't make clear that these riots were expressions of hate aimed at a people solely because of their nationality. I think a better title for this event might be the "Seattle Anti-Chinese Riots And Chinese Expulsion Of 1886." There is a just published book by an author named Jean Pfaelzer about this ugly history titled "Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans." Perhaps one of the reasons why this history is largely forgotten is that we don't even properly name the events surrounding the driving out of Chinese immigrants from local communities across the West Coast.
I wanted to throw this out there to see what other people had to say about it before attempting to change the title of the historical event. --Chiefbromden 19:12, 14 July 2007 (UTC)
- I don't care what it is called. But I think the notion that people don't understand history because of the terms used to name events is erroneous. People don't understand history because they aren't told, or don't care to understand the truth, the events themselves, not just their names. You can call a battle a massacre and a war genocide or vice versa, but the facts don't change, language is fluid anyway. A rose by any other name . . . blah blah blah. The content of this article makes no attempts at white washing the event, all one has to do is read, maybe that is too much to ask the reader in this soundbite geared society. One of Wikipedia's finest articles, Rock Springs massacre, is largely an unknown event, I worked very hard to ensure the Rock Springs article, and its spin off articles didn't whitewash history. Anyway, what do you propose the name be changed to? I think we should go with whatever most sources use to name it. When I created the page I couldn't really find an exact name, so I just went with what seemed to be Wikipedia convention. The 1992 Los Angeles riots and the Watts Riots didn't describe the nature of and/or cause of the events in their titles. Mostly, I think the article should do that and the title should be as concise as possible. If someone doesn't care to read the article, or to research the event, then a title change isn't much going to alter their perspective anyway. IvoShandor 10:08, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Contemporary article and picture
There is a contemporary article and picture here. Carcharoth 00:03, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] No compensation?
I believe this is wrong in saying that the victims received no compensation. I'm pretty sure that under the leadership and careful stock-taking of Chin Gee Hee, and with the support of Thomas Burke (judge), Seattle's Chinese were among the few in the U.S. to see any compensation for the 1885-86 riots. Certainly cited sources on Chin Gee Hee say as much. - Jmabel | Talk 05:25, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
