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Essay on The Zoot Suit Riots of 1943
The 1940s was a period in American history filled with social unrest and racial violence. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States, left paranoid and prejudiced, declared war so to speak, on Japanese Americans. A country that prides itself on freedom and opportunity took it upon itself to incarcerate over 100,000 Japanese people, regardless of whether or not they were American citizens. By the middle of 1942, completely innocent people many of whom had never been to Japan were thrown into American concentration camps. An event not glamorized in our elementary and high school text books. The west coast became an area of high racial tension, which was ultimately felt throughout the country (Brown, 1992). It wasn't until 1988 that the United States finally gave an official apology to these American people.
Zoot Suit Riots
What is known as the "Zoot Suit Riots" occurred between the gangs of predominantly black and Mexican youths who were at the forefront of the zoot-suit subculture, and the predominantly white American servicemen stationed along the Pacific coast. On the night of June 3, 1943, eleven sailors on shore leave stated that they were attacked by a group of Mexican pachucos. In response to this, a group of over 200 uniformed sailors chartered 20 cabs and charged into the Mexican American community in East Los Angeles. Any zoot suiter was fair game. On this and the following nights, many a zoot suiters were beaten by this mob and stripped of their clothes, their zoot suits, on the spot. Nine sailors were arrested during these disturbances, not one was charged with any crime (Eduardo, 2001).
On the following nights of June 4th and 5th, the uniformed servicemen (by this time the sailors had been joined by soldiers and marines) again invaded East Los Angeles, marching abreast down the streets, breaking into bars and theaters, and assaulting anyone in their way......
