and many other race riots into the more findable history category. The US (and Canada) have a lousy history of majority tribe/color(white) screwing over the newer groups, and indeed, just about every group got screwed. While Blacks/Browns are much, much less screwed since WW2 and Truman, they still have a way to go. Even successful sub-groups like today’s Greeks who are one of the highest earning sub-groups in the US, need to remember that it was not always that way.
Below is some of the anti-Greek history that is now at least found, because of the writers project, in classes that teach writing - as in the Omaha, Neb riot that is a writing excercise selection that discusses the killing/wounding of 20,000 (the killed were in the hundreds) and total removal of the Greek community from their possessions and housing, and in tourist commentary as in the Toronto article below. However, our US media (Canadian media does not hide from truth like our US media does) likes to pretend that none of this occurred.
http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/stories/0701_0130.htmlWriting Center Workshop Comma exercises. Add commas to the following paragraph where necessary.
Omaha has a long tangled twisting history of ethnic strife. Most citizens are aware of current tensions but many do not know about a specific event in the city’s history that made national headlines and caused riots nationwide in its aftermath. In fact the anti-Greek riot of 1909 changed the ethnic makeup of the city drastically contributing to already tense relations between ethnic groups. The riot took place on a day when Greek immigrants in South Omaha known then as “Greektown” were run out by a mob of thousands after an Irish police officer was shot dead by a Greek worker. Even though the population of Omaha was about 50% immigrant at the time the Greeks were singled out by natives and other immigrant groups groups that accused the Greeks of being dirty, being lazy, and taking American jobs. Following a “general meeting” called by a local newspaper a lynch mob formed and tried unsuccessfully to get to the shooter. When it couldn’t reach him Greek businesses were looted belongings were burned and people were beaten in a day of tremendous violence. Although the riot has largely been forgotten it was significant at the time because it forever changed the ethnic makeup of the city. Writing Center Workshop Comma exercise answers Omaha has a long, tangled, twisting history of ethnic strife. Most citizens are aware of current tensions, but many do not know about a specific event in the city’s history that made national headlines and caused riots nationwide in its aftermath. In fact, the anti-Greek riot of 1909 changed the ethnic makeup of the city drastically, contributing to already tense relations between ethnic groups. The riot took place on a day when Greek immigrants in South Omaha, known then as “Greektown,” were run out by a mob of thousands after an Irish police officer was shot dead by a Greek worker. Even though the population of Omaha was about 50% immigrant at the time, the Greeks were singled out by natives and other immigrant groups, groups that accused the Greeks of being dirty, being lazy, and taking American jobs. Following a “general meeting” called by a local newspaper, a lynch mob formed and tried unsuccessfully to get to the shooter. When it couldn’t reach him, Greek businesses were looted, belongings were burned, and people were beaten in a day of tremendous violence. Although the riot has largely been forgotten, it was significant at the time because it forever changed the ethnic makeup of the city.
http://www.yorku.ca/yfile/archive/index.asp?Article=3179A 1918 riot targeted Greek immigrants
About a million people turned out for the popular Taste of the Danforth festival (right) last weekend to gorge on Greek food and culture. But relations weren’t always as cordial in Toronto between Greek immigrants and the predominant Anglo-Canadian population, says history Professor Thomas Gallant. In 1918, soldiers returning from Europe led a looting mob and destroyed more than 20 downtown Greek businesses.
"On a swelteringly hot weekend 86 years ago, Torontonians took to the streets in search of things Greek, but for a very different reason than they did last weekend," says Gallant, who holds the Hellenic Heritage Foundation Chair in Modern Greek History at York. "Over the course of three days and nights, Aug. 2 to 5, 1918, mobs of up to 5,000 people, led by war veterans returned from Europe, marched through the city's main streets waging pitched battles with law enforcement officers and destroying every Greek business they came across."<snip>
Before tranquility could be restored to the city, more than 20 Greek businesses, mainly restaurants and cafés along Yonge and Queen streets, were destroyed and their contents looted. Sixteen law enforcement officers were injured, 10 seriously; over 150 rioting veterans and civilians were hurt, many requiring hospitalization; 25 rioters were arrested; and over $100,000 (approximately $1.25 million in today's dollars) worth of damage was done to Greek businesses and private property.
"The importance of the riot transcended Toronto," says Gallant. "Ottawa, Washington, London and Athens all become embroiled in what newspapers at the time referred to as the Toronto troubles. The 1918 anti-Greek riot is one of the darkest and most violent episodes in Toronto's history, and yet its story has never been told until now."<snip>
But there was also widespread anti-immigrant sentiment in Toronto, especially against southern Europeans like the Greeks and Italians, says Gallant. His students are always shocked when he shows a slide of a diner in Omaha, Nebraska, around that time displaying a sign that said "No niggers, no Greeks."<snip>
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