17. The Violent Backlash Against a Fashionable Suit
Young zoot suit wearers saw the getup as a declaration of their individuality, freedom, or rebelliousness. Others saw them as self-indulgent and unpatriotic extravagances during wartime. Life magazine did a feature on youth sporting zoots in 1942, and concluded that: “they were solid arguments for lowering the Army draft age to include 18-year-olds“. Other media joined in with sensational accounts that wildly exaggerated the costs and price tags of zoots. The result was a backlash. Those clad in the outfits were publicly berated or even physically attacked. Cops sometimes stopped and hassled zoot wearers, and ruined their suits by slashing them. However, the backlash’s greatest manifestation occurred in Los Angeles in June 1943, in what came to be known as the Zoot Suit Riots.
In the preceding year, local newspapers had whipped up racial tensions, and created a moral panic by harping on a non-existent “crime wave”, allegedly caused by Mexican-American youths. Soon, a media campaign was in full swing, calling for action against “zoot suiters”. LA police responded with frequent roundups and arrests of hundreds of young Mexican-Americans, guilty of nothing more than wearing oversized outfits. Tensions were further exacerbated by the murder conviction of 9 young Mexican-Americans, following a controversial trial amidst a wave of anti-Mexican-American hysteria. The trial was a travesty, and the convictions were overturned on appeal. In the meantime, however, racism against Mexican-Americans reached a peak in LA.