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, and was viewed approximately 3,849 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that rumors of the beating of a teenage shoplifter set off a race riot in 1935 in Harlem, New York?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/April.

Wikipedia

"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)[reply]

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)[reply]

Wel I hope that the far left is sattisfied with re-writing history!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.53.5.1 (talk) 19:51, 10 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you have suggestions for how this article could better conform to Wikipedia's policy of neutrality, please chime in. --Shunpiker (talk) 23:38, 11 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Background and Historical Analysis

The information provided under the section, "Background Information," was very brief and did not provide much historical context. Perhaps a cited statistic on poverty in 1935 Harlem would help the reader understand the circumstances. Additionally, the final sentence in "Historical Analysis" claims that riots after the Harlem Riot of 1935 resembled this riot in that they did not involve clashes between races. If this statement was altered to apply to the following 10 years it would potentially be true. But the civil rights movement era and the LA riots all involved a clash between races. Finally, there is a typo in the second paragraph where I believe you meant to say, "store," rather than "stre." Bmyers015 (talk) 15:49, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]