Talk:Seattle riot of 1886

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)

Contemporary article and picture
There is a contemporary article and picture here. Carcharoth 00:03, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

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)

Content refactoring proposed
There is considerable relevant material at History of Seattle before 1900 that is not reproduced here. I'd suggest using that material here, and perhaps slightly reducing the material there (though it's not so lengthy that I'd insist on the latter). - Jmabel | Talk 05:33, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

POV
I see that User:Twang has marked an apparently generally well-cited section as POV and needing better references. Twang, could you please indicate here what you see as a problem? Just tagging this doesn't communicate much. - Jmabel | Talk 18:47, 1 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I disagree that it's well cited; the section is dependent almost entirely on one source, and that source is at JSTOR and costs $10. That aside, the section as written tries to hang a very complex situation on one outsider's head, and on labor alone. That's overly simplistic because of what was going on throughout the country. One example of complexity: railroad companies were hiring "desperate immigrants and low-paid African Americans to break strikes or replace union members." [See e.g. http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9193]. Behind the upset of the laborers was some very cynical manipulation, including inciting racism, some of which was aimed at union-busting. (E.g. the IWW which -anyone- could join.) Labor was under seige across the country (the Haymarket Riot followed that summer). It goes deeper than just the surface. Twang (talk) 04:24, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
 * As for the source being on JSTOR: academic papers are generally available through university libraries, JSTOR should just be thought of as a convenience link for those who may have subscriptions.
 * Certainly there were reasons for white labor's anti-immigrant (and, especially, anti-Chinese) sentiments. They were being undercut by a cheaper (and far more docile) labor source, but (painful though it may be to those of us who generally consider ourselves pro-labor) I haven't really ever seen a source that doesn't tie the anti-Chinese actions of the mid-1880s pretty directly to the labor movement of the time.
 * Could you clarify, because I can't tell from your remarks: are you wanting additional citation for what is there? I don't think that would be terribly hard to track down. Or is there other specific material you want to add (in which case please either add it or at least sketch out what it would be so someone can work on tracking down appropriate sources for it)? The 1885-86 events in Seattle are pretty decently documented. Although, admittedly, the riot itself is better documented than the months leading up to it, enough took place in public meetings that were written up by the newspapers of the time that it's not particularly to sort out who was saying what. - Jmabel | Talk 05:26, 4 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm BOLDly pulling down the stale POV flag, this should have been brought up here more than a year and a half ago by the flagging editor so the matter could be discussed and resolved. Carrite (talk) 21:56, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia Ambassador Program course assignment
This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Boston College supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program&#32;during the 2013 Q1 term. Further details are available on the course page.

The above message was substituted from by PrimeBOT (talk) on 16:09, 2 January 2023 (UTC)