Museum of Resistance and Resilience Main MenuPraxis #1: Curation and Annotation (Group Project)details of Praxis #1 assignmentPraxis #1.1 War, Memory, And Identity: Beyond Victims and Voice Museum of Resistance and ResilienceProfessor Marjory Wentworth Honor's Class at College of CharlestonPraxis #2 Media Intervention, Multimedia Essay (Individual Project)Entry 2 in our Museum of Resistance and ResiliencePraxis #3 Manifesto of Future Resistance and ResilienceMedia Intervention/Media PostsFinal Course Reflection - A Letter to the FutureDue November 18Vicki Callahanf68c37bed83f129872c0216fae5c9d063d9e11baLisa Müller-Tredecc71af55f5122020f2b95396300e25feb73b6995
Racial Tensions and the Zoot Suit Riots
12020-09-23T00:20:51-07:00Annie Zheng06f73f1d4eed923be34aff2d2892e21670204942377842plain2020-09-23T00:21:07-07:00Annie Zheng06f73f1d4eed923be34aff2d2892e21670204942Throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s, WWII catalyzed xenophobia, and zoot suit wearers were viewed as WWII draft dodgers, even though there were high numbers of Mexican Americans in the military and most zoot suit wearers were also too young to serve. On May 31, 1943, a conflict between servicemen and Mexican American youths led to the beating of a US sailor; consequently, in retaliation, on June 3rd, 50 soldiers marched through downtown LA and attacked anyone wearing a zoot suit. In the days after, the heavily racially charged atmosphere resulted in a multitude of full-scale riots: mobs of servicemen attacked Latinos and African Americans, some who were not even wearing zoot suits, stripping them of their clothes and leaving them half naked and bloody on the ground, while police watched and only arrested the victims of these crimes (Andrews, 2015). While the exact cause of these riots are unclear, they were most definitely spurred on by the political climate: immigrant crime wave fears and stereotypes against Mexican Americans, believing that all are in gangs and all are inherently violent (O’Shaughnessy, 2017).
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1media/Zoot Suit Aftermath_thumb.jpg2020-09-23T00:13:15-07:00Annie Zheng06f73f1d4eed923be34aff2d2892e21670204942Teens in Zoot Suits5On the right, an image of a teenager in a zoot suit, circa 1943. On the left, a photograph of two zoot suit wearers post-riot, with their suits torn by rioters. SOURCE: Getty Images, 2015. Sourced from History.commedia/Zoot Suit Aftermath.jpgplain2020-09-23T15:14:48-07:00Annie Zheng06f73f1d4eed923be34aff2d2892e21670204942