Zoot Suit Riots Essay

The idea of a dominant cultural status, throughout history (and from what we have learned in class), has rooted from the old American custom of white and male supremacy. While white and male supremacy are no longer popularly accepted American values, the outright racial and sexual discrimination that originated from our past continues to exist today, but in a more complex way. As individuals, it is an essential part of everyday life to make important choices. Whether they are big or small, the choices we make have been greatly shaped by social structures that are established by a seemingly infinite number of organizations. It could be in areas such as education, employment, or housing. However, when these choices are created to discreetly limit

the opportunities available because of a person’s ethnic background, the problem of discrimination arises. Dominant cultural status is established and reinforced by both structural and cultural means. Institutions maintain systems of power and privilege by promoting one group’s worldview, rituals, and values to appear neutral, natural, and objective.
The concept of discrimination has many forms of ideologies. However, one in particular that stands out is the classic cycle of structural discrimination. Best explained in the United States Commission on Civil Rights, the problem of discrimination remains to have cumulative effects. Yes, the processes of discriminatory actions occur in the fields of employment, education, and housing. But there are the interactions within our social structures that lie between these fields. “These interrelated components of the discriminatory process share one basic result: the persistent gaps seen in the status of women and minorities relative to that of white males” (Part A: The Problem: Discrimination). Women and minorities who lack the sponsorship with white men are trapped in an unavoidable gender/race-based discriminated society. These two under-privileged groups share the same perspective of having similar dynamics in prejudice. For example, the lack of minorities and women from writing, news reporting, and acting contributes to the unfair stereotyping on the screen. This in turn reinforces the existing stereotypes among the public and creates psychological roadblocks to progress employment. By creating a lack of diversity on screen, it gives off a hidden institution of power of one group’s worldview. Without the right context, decision makers are too easily falling prey to stereotyping and consequently disregard those minorities and women, who actually have the qualifications, the light of day.
From a cultural perspective, institutions in the form of profit centers are still able to maintain a form of a dominant culture through outright ignorance. The relationship between the Native Americans and the uprising American government can be summed with one word, paternalism. Policies created by the US for Native Americans were guided by this idea. It was based on the idea that Native Americans needed to be taught how to be civilized (Fabionar, 2014). This was greatly enforced by ongoing public representations explained in Takaki’s A Different Mirror. The more “civilized” Englishmen have personified the Indians as savages by creating a collectivization of ideas in which display to the spectators that the English are made to be on top and dominant. Their rationale is that like Caliban, Indians seemed to lack everything the English identified as civilized – Christianity, cities, letters, and clothing (Takaki, 2008, p. 33). This is an example of the Master Narrative in American History. With this type of mindset, citizens within our mainstream get misinformation for the benefit of the stronger culture. The representation of racial diversity has been fought for a long time and remains a powerful force in showcasing the dominant culture in what is supposedly a non-dominant nation.
The relationship between ethnocentrism and paternalism can be explored through the interactions and developments of resistance by Native Americans. In Patricia Riley’s short story Adventures of an Indian Princess, she incorporates many forms of symbolism that reflects this relationship. The story’s main character is an adopted Cherokee girl named Arletta (Riley, 1993). Being adopted by a non-native, ignorant family, she encounters an area that makes her reflect the true relationship between the Native Americans and its opposing dominant culture. Her parents, the Rapiers, appear to be seemingly normal, but actually give off a distasteful vibe. When they all arrived at the Indian Trading Post, Jackson Rapier, the father, saw this location as an act of self-opportunity that had been disguised as a good deed for Arletta. Even Jackson Rapier’s name symbolizes that dominant president Andrew Jackson, who hated Native Americans and even practiced the engagement of land speculation. Lands that had original belong to Indians (Takaki, 2008, p. 79). What attracted the Rapiers was The Indian Trading Post’s sign of “genuine” Indian goods. This sign symbolizes a worldview of false values in which attempt to appear neutral. This institution is solely made to benefit off of ignorant customers like the Rapiers, who in turn, are benefiting from this artificial experience. However, there is one person who obviously did not like the situation, and that is Arletta. Her hatred and disgust throughout the story represents the bigger picture. The influx of Western culture has been nothing but disrespect because the dominant culture has been promoting a false notion of a culture that has been around for centuries. Arletta’s small voice gradually becomes larger. This represents the Native American’s first attempts to accept the presence of the Europeans when they arrived, but the voice becomes stronger as more disrespectful actions take place. It relates to the strong, overtaking of paternalism that cancels out small voices in a loud, dominant culture.
The issues of racism are a white problem, not a Negro problem. The racial polarization comes from the existence of other races rather than the behavior or white. George Lipsitz, a writer, discusses that white people inherit the culture derived from the past. Their need of ownership and glory comes from a large feeling of possessiveness. “From the start, European settlers in North America established structures encouraging possessive investment in whiteness” (Lipsitz, 1995, p. 371). This is absolutely true. The United States possessive investment has been based on the foundation of its powerful legacy through the effects of racialization, therefore establishing themselves as the dominating society. With actions of exploiting labor in African Americans and other minority groups, the legacies of racism have been left by federal, state, and local policies. Lipsitz, along with other historians, note that these public policies and practices shaped the structural and cultural landscapes of urban areas in ways that established and reinforced a social hierarchy based on race (Fabionar, 2014). The white Americans have created a structure to invest in their whiteness where they could access or gain certain opportunities not directly given to the minorities. The legacy brought upon by the whites overshadows the other racial groups in ways that appear neutral. For example, the Federal Housing Administration’s city surveys channeled all of the loan money (six times as much) toward whites and away from the communities of color. By creating these situations in which would generate long-term effects, the gap for resources between the whites and minorities has suddenly widened.
Mexican Americans had trouble associating with the White Americans through cultural and physical borders.

During the heightened phase of US patriotism in World War II, the fear of communists provided a backdrop for a gruesome riot between Mexican Americans and the white military servicemen (Fabionar, 2014). The Zoot Suit riots took place in Southern California in the 1940s, meaning Mexican Americans had a big role. The Zoot Suit Riots were the Latinos attempting to create a new youth culture. As immigrants, these young Mexican Americans had somewhat successfully created a new way to display their culture. However, doing so in US in amidst of a World War, sparked danger. The violent attacks against these Zoot Suit wearers had escalated in a “war” created the white servicemen (Video: The Zoot Suit Riots). The ongoing aggression appeared natural, because there were arrests, but it still remained very oppressive, even for a non-violent action like wearing suits. The US once again establishes itself as the dominant figure against their neighbor, Mexico. The discrimination has remained very one-sided because of the institutional background and creation of a well-established, yet unbalanced society. The Zoot Suit riots were a physical and emotional hardship. The concept of arriving somewhere new puts them in a tough situation of being stuck from harsh realities. The escape from their native land only leads to newer opportunities that will be beneficial or detrimental, which are in

the hands of the higher-upped people. The story of the Zoot Suit Riots is an example of the community’s willingness and adversity of these immigrants to separate themselves in order to bring more togetherness as a whole. The struggling Mexican immigrants is not a sign that all kinds of immigrants had great trouble.
Asian Americans are not only rapidly growing in population, but also in economic and cultural significance.

The waves of Asian immigrants have led to, however, a new wave of discrimination. Martin Marger, the author of Race and Ethnic Relations, describes the acts of discrimination against Asian Americans in recent years have been simple cases, but it has started to become more overt and violent. Asian Americans have been more relatively successful than other ethnic groups (Marger, 2006). It seems that the discrimination may be the result of their economic and educational prowess over the long-standing dominant white Americans. One of the most compelling examples is the story of Vincent Chin. Chin, a young Chinese engineer, had been beaten to death by two white American workers who claimed that his kind was the problem of their unemployment (Chin, n.d.). This incident laid out the message that these two murderers are willing display their animosity in order to promote that they want to maintain the system of a single worldview. While the Vincent Chin event was culture shock, it brought clearer movement towards assimilation, which has overall been, demonstrated through the success the Asians’ adaptation to America’s seemingly one-sided society. Although it seems like the Asian immigrants chose to migrate to America for sitting opportunities, others had no choice. In The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir, Kao Kalia Yang experiences first hand what like to narrowly escape

her native country in a time of war. Being born Hmong, Yang had the inconvenience of being on the weak link of the Cold War. Her families plan to leave to America is run by dominant, neutral transition camp for all Asians. Yang (2008) described, “In this camp, our big trees would be cut down, our large stones thrown out, and new seeds would be planted. The Hmong people were pushed together, pushed apart, and pushed out in Phanat Nikhom” (p. 92). The camp symbolizes the new era established by an opposing force. This type of forced assimilation involved policies that became increasingly intrusive and aggressive.
Our values as a society have changed a lot. Throughout our whole lives we have been fighting for equality. If we are in a path towards equality, there will always be a dominant cultural status trying to stop us. Even though these strict ideas may overwhelm us through many types of means, structural or cultural, it is our duty to persevere with a strong sense of adversity. It is our job to be educated enough to catch these institutions who are controlling the systems of power and privilege when they are hard to see.