Discuss The Causes Of The Zoot Suit Riots

White sailors invaded Mexican American communities and attacked Zoot Suitors. The city police did nothing to restrain the sailors, who grabbed the Hispanic teenagers, tore off and burned their clothes, cut off their hair, and beat them. However, when Hispanics tried to fight back, the police moved in and arrested them. After the Zoot Suit riots, LA passed a law prohibiting the wearing Zoot Suits” (www.stufflikethat.org, 2010)

Through the past centuries many acts of rebellion have occurred. However not many have had such an impact compared to the L.A. riots of May of 1992. After the events that occurred on May of 1992 in Los Angeles, many things changed. The L.A. riots changed race relations between police and the people of Los Angeles for the coming years.

The history of Mexicans in Los Angeles is a long one. The city itself was founded in 1781, by Spaniards and mixed race Latinos. As time went on, Latinos faced more and more discrimination. Certain events stand out in California’s Latino history. In the forties, Caucasian sailors would beat up Latinos who wore “Zoot Suits”, or baggy clothes, and the police let the Caucasians do it with no consequences.

The Watts riots began in the summer of 1965, in a city in Los Angeles called Watts. It all began with the arrest of a young African American by a white California Highway Patrol officer. Now, it was not because he was arrested for already doing something illegal, it was for the way the police officer treated the individual. According to Lacine Holland, an eyewitness to the arrest, the officer “took him and threw him in the car like a bag of laundry and kicked his feet in and slammed the door.” (Flournoy) This caused lots of unrest among the fellow residents of Watts. This was just the beginning of years of pent up oppression for the minorities, which participated in the event. Similarly, in 1992, the Rodney King riots also arose due to the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers for their brutal beating

On February 19th, at 8:30 in the morning, the invasion started. At least 90,000 marines stormed the volcanic sands of the beachheads with huge casualties. Unable to protect themselves on the open

Following the events of Pearl Harbor, the integration of minority groups into the workforce proved to cause tensions between the groups. Throughout the country, racial riots sparked and caused many conflicts. Two of the most influential riots occurred in Detroit and Los Angeles. The causes of these riots were due to the effects of wartime on the homefront and the racial discrimination that many possessed.

The neighborhood I have chosen is Watts, California. Before it was known as Watts it was a part of Rancho La Tajuata specializing in livestock grazing and beef production. In the 1870's there was a population boom of White Americans in Southern California. La Tajuata was divided and sold into smaller farms and homes. By the 1900's the development of the railroads brought good things. The town became a city and built it's first station known as Watts Station. In 1926 the city annexed itself to Los Angeles. The railroads brought Mexican and Mexican American workers known as "traqueros" into the community.

An important factor, which contributed to the Zoot Suit Riots, was the influence of the media. Newspapers and propaganda began to detriment the appearance of Pachucos and zoot suits. This dynamic added to the strong anti-Mexican sentiment, and led to the spread of hysteria during the war. In addition, the encouragement from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), as well as the presence of the servicemen in Los Angeles immediately led to the riots. Although all these factors contributed to the riots, they all fail to address the important underlying psychological stressors, which caused tension against the Pachucos’ style. Therefore, I claim that that the Girardian persecution dynamic, based on lack of difference between the Pachucos and the patriotic Americans, contributed mainly to the riots.

Zoot suits, associated with the Mexican race, consisted of a long jacket that reached almost to the knees, pants with a “tight stuff cuff”, a “wide, flat hat, and Dutch-toe shoes” (Berger 193). These zoot suits were worn by the Mexican youth who were accused of murder on August 2, 1942. People claimed that Jose Diaz was murdered by a gang that had broken up a party at Sleepy Lagoon ranch located close to Los Angeles. However, even though the lower court did convict them of murder, two years later the district court of appeals took that decision back by stating that there was not enough good evidence and that most of that decision was made based on prejudice issues. This incident became known as the “Sleepy Lagoon Affair” and was made

0n the 11th of December 2010 tensions grew between two communities. What started out as a brawl fight between two teenage groups with different views ended with a deadly set of attacks destroying the social cohesion of our country. These attacks were the acts of cowards and the Australian public shouldn’t in any way be supportive of something that completely disagrees with the safety of our people. Were these acts right? Did hundreds of people need to be injured? The answer to both these questions are NO. So how did this event that stunned the nation start? Well the cronulla riots weren’t planned and meetings weren’t held for it, however a text message outlining the hatred felt towards the Lebanese community was sent. The message contained phrases such as “lets show these wogs this is our beach and they aren’t welcome

Despite the war efforts by many Mexican Americans in both fronts of the war, brutal discrimination was still rampant even in the very neighborhoods (barrios) that they called home. The Sleepy Lagoon Case, dubbed as such by the LA press, was an example of racial tension brought to light. In the heat of August 1942 gang member Jose Diaz was found unconscious near a swimming hole named the Sleepy Lagoon where many young Latinos and gang members would go to swim as they were not permitted to frequent Anglo only natatoriums. Diaz who never regained consciousness had apparently suffered a skull fracture, but no murder weapon or proof of murder was ever found. In the face of these facts, authorities blamed twenty-four youths, only one of which was Anglo. Citing Mexican American 'lawlessness and mischievousness ' as proof enough that they were to be at fault. The notoriously corrupt Los Angeles Police Department charged the twenty-four who were involved in a gang clash earlier in the day with murder. It was no secret that Judge Charles Fricke was blatantly racist and he repeatedly allowed prosecutors to stereotype the defendants. He also refused to allow the defendants change of clothes or haircuts so as to have them resemble in the courtroom how he viewed Mexican Americans: as criminals and hooligans, because of the belief 'only hoodlums wore zoot suits '. In January 1943, the jury without any solid evidence found

The book Zoot Suit has symbolic significance for Mexican Americans and tells about the riots during World War II. The Sleepy Lagoon Murder was one step in the fight for the rights and respect of Mexican American's. This riot involved young servicemen and civilians who clashed in the streets of the city with young Mexican Americans who wore the noticeable "Zoot Suit." At their height, the riots involved several thousand men and women. In the end no one was killed and only a few were injured but even today, the Zoot Suit riots are remembered for their significance.

Racial tensions began heightening in the city of Los Angeles on June of 1943. It’s what came to be known as the Zoot Suit Riots. Racial tension between Mexican Americans who were called both pachucos and zoot suiters. They were known for their fashion which had a symbolic meaning towards them, it was a way in expressing themselves which white sailors and servicemen disliked. They saw Mexican Americans as thugs, gang members, and delinquents. White servicemen and sailors were unfamiliar with hispanics, but it was so easy for them to discriminate by appearance. Several Mexican Americans served in white units. Tension was rising between them, especially when marines and sailors assaulted both Mexican and African Americans in their own neighborhood. Also, for a false rumor towards Mexican Americans which stated that they had attacked and stabbed a sailor. Both races were being discriminated and were treated unjustly. The day came on June 3, 1943 where these conflicts led to the Zoot Suit Riots. This incident of violence lasted a whole week. Zoot suiters were beaten and arrested for no reason at all. The issues that led to the Zoot Suits in 1943 was Jose Diaz, the Sleepy Lagoon Case, and racial attacks between whites and people of color. This filled the atmosphere with a lot of hatred and discrimination that had erupted in the summer of 1943. The riot led to a compromise of all military personnel being banned from the city limits with in Los Angeles

There has been many incidents of discrimination and cruelty in my community. Ultimately because of equality a lot of citizens don't believe in equal rights. I have had experience with this through my local news channels of broadcasting the Baltimore riots or learning in school on the history of Jews being kept captive in camps and treated poorly by nazi's. Equality is something we need to work on. It is ensuring that everyone is able to have equal opportunities and frowned upon just because their race, gender, disability or beliefs.

When Octavio Paz first visited the largest Mexican population center outside of Mexico’s international borders, Los Angles, he said the city had a "vague atmosphere" of Mexicanism in that manifested itself through "delight in decorations, carelessness and pomp, negligence, passion and reserve." But he felt that his "ragged but beautiful" ghost of Mexican identity rarely interacted with "the North American world based on precision and efficiency." Instead, this Mexicanism floated above the city, "never quite existing, never quite vanishing.1By the time Paz visited the exterior Mexico, a generation of Mexican revolution immigrants had their children in the United States and they had matured. These people had heard the corridos of the Revolutionary