Essay On Zoot Suit Riots

As diverse as the city of Los Angeles is today, its history has had a lot of racial tension and civil unrest. During the 1940’s people of color were always seen as nothing better than a group of minorities, with the Zoot suit riots it showed just that. As a show of protest to how they they were unfairly treated Pachucos wore zoot suit as a means of political and social rebellion. What is a Pachuco and what are zoot suit one may ask, a Pachuco refers to a latino during the 1940’s who wore flamboyant attire or zoot suits, and used a certain slang, a hybrid of spanish and english. A zoot suit included flowing high waisted pegged pants, a long broad shouldered jacket, nice shoes and a chained wallet. These zoot suits were worn proudly by Mexican

American youth as a symbol of their new place in American society. Many Mexican Americans at the time were racially discriminated, misrepresented in the media, and white americans violently abused them, although the riots had only lasted ten days the consequences had already been done.
In the summer of 1943 the chicano youth faced discrimination in their own neighborhoods at the hands of the U.S. servicemen; to avoid getting into any trouble chicanos thad to stay away from certain neighborhoods because a white man was there. For mexican american youth the zoot suit was more than fashion it was a symbol of pride and ethnicity. When sailors began to come to Los Angeles, many for the first time, they saw that the Zoot suiters where a sign of latinos were out of control; thus began the attacks on latinos that “needed” to be put in their place, who better to do it then the might of the U.S armed forces. “This is suppose to be a free country we don't go around beating people because of we don’t like the clothes they wear… on who’s side is the navy on Uncle Sam or Hitler” (Pagan). The zoot suit was now a form of fashion and protest, of how they didn’t want to be treated solely because of how they dressed, but servicemen now began to attack anyone dressed in a zoot suit. With the riots happening one would think the police would intervene and stop the attackers, however that was not the case. “Police officer had a mop up process where they would wait until servicemen beat and stripped zoot suitors then come in and arrest mexican americans for disturbing the peace” (Bruns). Over twenty five hundred witnesses saw sailors indiscriminately attack chicano youth, yet police did virtually nothing to stop the servicemen and instead arresting the victims of the assaults, causing more disturbances.  
During the riots media played a huge role in the hatred towards Mexican Americans, the imagery in the newspaper showed Mexicans as disloyal foreigners, murders, and zoot suiters, and  as a result many were gravely injured.

“Just as Journalists, novelist, and propagandists appealed on behalf of servicemen went to emotions of empathy compassion and brotherhood the injunctions against zoot suiters solicited fantasies of revenge, retribution and annihilation” (Mazon). The press had from the start instigated and fueled hostility against zoot suit wearers and pachuco culture. One example, city newspapers began running stories about the “ juvenile war” being waged on the country streets by latino kids. During this disorder their daily and false accusations sparked up the flames. “The media constantly referred to the latino youth as delinquents, goons, and hoodlums” (Acuna). The media portrayed the chicano youth as a nuisance and applauded the servicemen for their “heroic” acts making the pride and joy of the public. Headline after headline, stories of how the servicemen were being mistreated making them the victims by only telling one side of the story, made civilians want to help the servicemen. Now not only were the servicemen beating and humiliating Zoot Suiters but civilians as well, because of what they read in newspapers, reasoning their violence by saying  they were doing their part for the war

effort.
In chicano gatherings, sailors and marines would come and raid places attacking zoot suitors, stripping them of their clothes; what started as an assault turned into violent chaos between all minorities and white men.

“The attacks represented a kind of ritualistic humiliation, not aimed to kill latinos but to put them in there place both by beatings and destroying their uniform” (Bruns). Since none of the sailors were getting arrested, these kinds of raids and violence made chicanos take matters into their own hands, fighting back and defending theirselves. One day over 200 marines and sailors from the navy went to east L.A. and whenever they spotted a young Mexican the boy was beaten in  minutes. “Servicemen and civilians ran up and down mexican neighborhoods hunting for zoot suitors and the fight was on. One Mexican american woman yelled out,  you disgrace your uniform!” (Griffith). There was a point where it was normal to see zoot suitors beaten and naked in the street. The reasoning that some sailors were giving for these acts was because there had been accusations of zoot suiters harassing women close to them. Despite precautions taken on the part of the military police and local authorities to control the situation, the servicemen continued to walk the streets of Los Angeles armed with clubs their attacks increased from Mexicans to African Americans as well. Finally on June 8th military officials have declared Los Angeles off limits to all military personnel; the next

day the Los Angeles city council banned the wearing of zoot suits and on June 10th riots had died down.
In the early 1940’s, the city of Los Angeles was heavily segregated based on race. It was an area of ethnic and racial paranoia sparked by arguably one of the most racial trials in the history of California. The Zoot Suit riots violently flooded many streets in the city of Los Angeles. The Zoot Suitors trying to make a name for themselves beyond their Mexican parents’ traditions, felt they were being attacked and retaliated against the U.S. servicemen. Soldiers and sailors, being portrayed as heroic in the media, lashed out toward Mexican Americans claiming to help restore society. While the Los Angeles police department, court and Mayor viewed Zoot Suiters as delinquent gang members and took no legal action towards servicemen. The Zoot Suiters had the most accurate perspective despite the fact they did not commit crime because they had no one to defend or protect them, but themselves. All parties involved in the Zoot Suit Riots allowed for racism to fuel violence. Although the Zoot Suiters were also at fault, they were the true victims of the riots.