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The portrayal of Racism in Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez

Introduction

Debuting in 1978, Zoot Suit is a play developed by Luis Valdez that is based on the Zoot Suit riots and Sleepy Lagoon murder trial. Unlike his previous works, Valdez takes a historical as opposed to a contemporary approach to important social issues in this play. The play follows the story of Henry Reyna and his street gang that was tried for murder in Los Angeles during World War II. This occurs after a confrontation with a neighboring gang at the Sleepy Lagoon, the local lovers’ lane. Here the gang gets into a fight, and a young man is killed. Two members of the gang are placed on trial and given a life sentence as a result of the incident. This essay discusses how Luis Valdez play Zoot Suit demonstrates the problem of racism in society.

The issue of racism is evidenced throughout the play as the 38 Street Gang is persecuted based on race. At the time, the police force displayed a prejudiced attitude towards Hispanic people and views them as second-class citizens. The play delved into the racial discrimination that the Chicano population went through in Los Angeles in the 1940s. Valdez shows clearly that the two street gang members accused of murdering the Mexican-American are at the mercy of the legal process, which is biased (Elhalafawy, Ibrahim, 245). They are held responsible for a crime they did not commit. The only reason Henry and his friend are arrested is their appearance. Wearing a zoot suit was the Mexican American way of trying to fit into the American culture. As the 38 Street Gang are taken through the legal process for criminal justice, the judge that is overlooking the case does everything in his power to ensure the prosecutors frame them as dangerous and malicious as possible. From a legal perspective, it is evident that the Street gang was not culpable for the death of the Mexican-American, Jose Williams (Huerta, 37). Despite this, the public prosecutor opines to the jury that letting Henry and his colleagues walk Scott-free would be an injustice in itself and that would unleash “the forces of anarchy and destruction” into American society (1.3). The said destruction is rhetoric because the events took place during World War II. At the time, the prosecutor considers the worst fear of American citizenry as destruction and anarchy. He pins destruction on the struggle of people of color as they fight extremism with domestic matters that are entirely unrelated. Valdez showcases the government’s unjustness in how it targets the Chicano community in the early 1940s. He invites the audience to look into that unfortunate section of their history. He calls upon them to focus their attention on how prejudiced authorities manipulate fear and patriotism towards minority populations.

The play demonstrates to its audiences first-hand the repercussions of racial profiling. Racial profiling refers to biased policing based on ethnicity and race. The play’s title is a clear indication of the racial profiling that exists in the play. The play is named after a suit style popular among the Chicano community in the 1940s. With time, police began using the suit style as a sign of criminality. Zoot suits were baggy suits that had high-waisted trousers and long jackets. While they were not exclusive to the Chicano people only, the police primarily associated the style with minority groups, particularly young people. Because of this, racists adopted a new view of the dressing code. In essence, the zoot suit came to be viewed as a uniform that stood for everything they hated. Rudy, Henry’s brother, encountered the unfair attitude as he got caught up in the suit riots that took place in 1943. For three nights, sailors, civilians, navy officers, and other white servicemen begin running through and attacking all people that were in a zoot suit. One evening, Rudy is out dancing when he suddenly finds himself at the center of a violent altercation simply because of his dress code. One of the white men says that “zoot suiters” such as Rudy are trying to “outdo the white man in exaggerated white man’s clothes” (Act 2.5-6) The accusation underscores an intolerant and racist attitude towards the Chicano people and his anxiety that whites might lose the power they have in American society. This is a prejudiced fear which ends in violence. Rudy and his community encounter a brand of hatred that is motivated by insecurity.

To make the matter worse, prejudiced white police officers tend to validate their aggression and insecurity by painting the Chicano community to be a threat to American war efforts taking place in Europe. When the Zoot Suit riots ensue, one press member tells El Pachuco that the “Zoot Suit Crime wave is even beginning to push the war news off the front page” (2.6). In this case, El Pachuco is the narrator. Worth noting, members of the press say it conflates with the suit itself. Essentially, anyone that dresses like they belong to the Chicano community or minority group is not only a criminal but also responsible for curtailing wartime patriotism. As such, people that are racists take the zoot suit issues as a way to disenfranchise and vilify minorities such as Henry and Rudy, that are not actually doing anything to help American war efforts.

Implying that individuals like Rudy and Henry undermine American wartime values is rather unfair. Ultimately, Henry had already signed up to join the Navy at the time of his arrest, and Rudy manages to join soon after his brother is imprisoned (Rios, 57). This explains why their lawyer, George, attempts to emphasize that the accused are dedicated members of American community in his closing arguments. It would be deeply unfair to find Henry and his colleagues guilty of a crime that they did not commit. Evidence is key. George insists that such a decision would “murder the spirit of racial justice in America”(1.11). In other words, George attempts to demonstrate to the jury that the defendants from the Chicano community are not outsiders but are Americans (Paredes, 68). This meant that treating the accused unfairly would be a violation of core American values, which was what racists claimed zoot suiters were doing. Yet, individuals such as public prosecutors worked tirelessly to imply that Henry and his colleagues symbolized destruction and anarchy hence employing them as scapegoats exacerbate racial prejudices by simply upholding that they are indeed opposed to the American way of life. Thankfully, Henry and his colleagues are eventually let out of prison with time. However, this is not mean that this fear-mongering rhetoric does not have lasting damage to the Chicano community; it unjustly and unnecessarily interprets the lives of young men and forces them to spend time in prison even though they do not deserve it. By displaying this Valdez is warning the audience members not to provide false nationalist claims concerning the alleged threat that minority individuals pose to the nation, since it is nothing more than a strategy to oppress people that are already vulnerable to discrimination and racism. Currently, the American society is structured in such a way that the majority of white people do not have an idea or first-hand experience about the life that minority groups such as Latino and African American lead (Kamel, 71). There is a continuous norm of segregation and separation, which keeps people of various ethnic and racial groups from interacting with one another positively and meaningfully. The segregation perpetuates the ignorance of these groups hence giving rise to prejudiced attitudes.

In closing, for too long now, American society has placed importance on significant characteristics, including age, hair texture, skin color, sexual orientation, and social differences like language, religion, ethnicity, and social class. Similarly, people of color and other minority groups have been the subject of racial profiling for decades to the extent that they have accepted it as their norms. The experiences that Henry and members of the 38 Street Gang go through point to the struggles of minority groups in America. Racism is a systemic problem that has its roots in the fact that people of color came as slaves in America. The issues highlighted in this play mirror the problems of current society characterized by police brutality, excessive use of force, and preferential treatment of people of color throughout the criminal justice system. It is high time that racism is addressed and eliminated in society once and for all. It represents a barbaric way of thinking that should not exist in the 21st century. Just like the police enforcers in the play judged civilians by the physical appearance and clothes they wore, so do police in current society judge civilians according to the color of their skin. This explains why people of color comprise the majority of people incarcerated in American society compared t their white counterparts.

Works Cited

Elhalafawy, Ayman Ibrahim Elhalafawy. “Stereotyping Chicanos in Ethnic Theatre: A Study of Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit.” CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education 68.1 (2019): 245-255.

Huerta, James. “LA as Borderland: Teaching Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit.” Los Angeles Times (2018).

Kamel, Amal Ibrahim. “Ethnic Identity between Assimilationism and Separatism: August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit.”

Paredes, Veronica. “Embodying the Background: Connecting Pachucas and Movie Theaters in Filmic and Literary Depictions of the Zoot Suit Riots.” Feminist Media Histories 6.4 (2020): 68-93.

Rios, Francine. “Zoot Suit: A Correction to American Public Memory.” American Papers (2018): 57.

Zuit Suit play by Luis Valdez