Talk:Racial tension in Omaha, Nebraska

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Is the early mention of the creation of the Negro Old Peoples Home supposed to reflect racial tension? That and the founding of the NAACP almost seem to belong to a different article.--Parkwells 23:44, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Rather than just a listing of terrible incidents, it would be useful if there were some effort to provide context for what was going on - there is some suggestion of this in the paragraph about veterans striking when finding they had been replaced at work (but how could they strike if they didn't have jobs?), but more is needed than one line even here. I think it is too broad to say that racial tension arrived when the first slave was transported there; it is almost meaningless. The article could be improved by providing some history of population changes - how many people came in within a decade? Where were they from? How were they the same or different from people who were there? What were educational levels? There are no population numbers, no demographic breakdown, no suggestion of the number or proportion of foreign-born immigrants. Usually violence erupted in other places at times of rapid social change, social volatility, competition for scarce jobs or resources, competition for housing, struggle over "territory", whether of geography or jobs. This doesn't explain it all, but it's usually male violence to exert power.--Parkwells 23:44, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

thin the city, whereas it was only 1% in the state. The blacks followed other waves of European immigrants in North Omaha: the Irish, Swedes, Greeks, Italians and Jews. Those are absolutely the conditions of rapid social change that make people anxious. Those same conditions with different numbers led to KKK recruiting in cities across the Midwest in the early 1920s, but they rapidly fell out of favor again - Detroit, Indianapolis, Denver, Portland, OR, as well as Dallas, Atlanta, and others.

Also, strikebreakers have traditionally been attacked by workers, in mining towns and other industries - again, less to do with race than the tension of the context. It looks as if part of what happened in Omaha was that blacks got stuck when industrial jobs collapsed, as happened in some industrial cities across the north (i.e. Hartford, CT, and the Rust Belt.) The longer established the community, the harder it is to pick up and move again. --Parkwells 15:00, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

I've made some changes in line with my comments above, and have some questions. Why do you have the statement about the first African American church being organized in the 1800's? To prove they were there? Do you know how many members the church had, or how many African Americans lived in the city then? It's not a statement about racial tension to say they organized a church. Since no African American birth was recorded before 1872, and there were only 81 Negroes in 1860, there doesn't seem to have been a large population. The Nebraska STudies site, which you reference, said the African American population went from 5,000 to 10,000 plus from 1910-1920, a 130% increase, whereas in the state overall, only 1% of the population was black. That kind of change is what people notice, especially as it was combined with immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. --Parkwells 23:16, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Incidents in 2003-2004

It's not clear that these are signs of racial tension. Many people are critical when previous offenders, no matter what race, commit murder. With the 2nd incident, you seem to suggest the policeman received unfair treatment, but no one can judge as there aren't enough facts. I think these weaken rather than strengthen your case and deleted them. Selecting these incidents might cause a reader to question the POV - how many unsolved crimes and murders are there? How many repeat offenders commit murder?

What you haven't discussed much is why poverty developed in Omaha. In many other cities, such as Chicago and Washington, DC, for instance (especially in the last 20 years) after civil rights legislation made it possible, middle class blacks as well as whites left inner city neighborhoods for newer housing and better schools in the suburbs, leaving the poorest and least successful people in the cities. That is more than just a racial problem, but an economic and social problem. In Chicago and other cities, industrial jobs disappeared, leaving unskilled people with no way to earn decent money. Did that happen in Omaha? You seem to have only facts that suggest racial problems.

Data from the recent censuses was incorrect - Omaha has the 5th highest poverty RATE, not the 5th highest population of poor people. Corrected it. --Parkwells 23:46, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] References

  1. 16, the link doesn't work. I was trying to help collect more data.--Parkwells (talk) 20:18, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] POV

The topic is racial tension, but it would be useful to have more information. This account presents only what went wrong, not much on attempts to improve things, nor much about which jobs left the city and why. Even if attempts at improvement failed, you don't give anyone credit for trying. The documentary "Omaha Is Burning" looked at a white minister's attempts to bridge the communities. From what I've read, both sides put him off. All these incidents and situations didn't develop in isolation. Maybe it would be better to combine this with the article on the Civil Rights movement, as it doesn't present much information about the African American community, either.--Parkwells (talk) 20:18, 7 December 2007 (UTC)