The Tacoma Method: When Genocide Wore a Suit and Tie

The Tacoma Method: When Genocide Wore a Suit and Tie

Ever heard of a time an entire Chinese community was erased—legally, efficiently, and with a smile?

Welcome to Tacoma, Washington. The year was 1885.

No torches. No mobs. Just a mayor, city council, and police force

holding planning meetings on how to “politely” commit ethnic cleansing.

Chinese immigrants had built the railroads, cleared forests, opened businesses—

literally built Tacoma with their bare hands.

But when the economy tanked and white residents needed a scapegoat,

they didn’t blame policy or capitalism. They blamed the Chinese.

City officials gave them a deadline: leave by November 3rd.

Then, on that day, armed locals peacefully marched into Chinatown,

forced elders, children, and workers into the freezing rain,

and walked them 10 miles out of the city.

No arrests. No accountability.

Then they burned Chinatown to the ground.

They called it the Tacoma Method—because it wasn’t a riot,

it was a “solution.”

And Tacoma bragged about it for decades.

So next time someone says, “That’s not who we are,”

remind them: America doesn’t always erase people with violence—

sometimes it uses paperwork, city council meetings, and a smile.