Thesis
The main cause of the Zoot Suit Riots was the lack of effort from the LAPD, the newspapers being biased, and the pachucos causing trouble.
Background
During World War II in Los Angeles May 1943, Mexican Americans were having Riots with the U.S. Servicemen. At first it began with the Zoot Suiters having fights withe servicemen, the police did very little to stop the riots. Although the media did show "current events" which started more conflict between the two groups. Afterwards all Mexican Americans were being targeted.
Evidence & Analysis 1
“Zoot Suiters are being arrested in all parts of L.A. County. Many have been caught with weapons such as knives hidden in their pants. Many sailors and servicemen have victims of violence and casualties from the pachuco hoodlums.” The news was making it seem as if it was the servicemen were being victims and did not choose to participate in the riots, and the policemen were only arresting Zoot Suiters after the riots ended. When the news holds a particular race of being accountable for crimes that also had been committed by other groups the public will believe that that particular race is at fault for those crimes and will think that they are the source of the problem.
Evidence & Analysis 2
The pachucos were causing trouble: “Twelve Negroes ambushed a 17-year-old white high school student, asked him if he was a "zoot suiter" and when he said "no" the fight started. The victim, Joe M. Steddum of 8834 Banders St., Watts, received a five-inch cut on his left forehead.”. The Zoot Suiters started causing trouble with people who weren't Zoot Suiters.
Rebuttal
Some people would say that the only reason the riots started was because of the Pachucos. This is wrong because there were many factors that contributed to the riots. One of which was that many newspaper made the Mexican youth look bad. Another factor that caused the Zoot Suit Riots were the inactivity of the police. Since the police did nothing to stop this when it began it only escalated from there. Lastly some of this is the Pachucos fault but its also the sailors fault because they only did this because they didn't like the fact the Mexican Immigrants were talking over Los Angles.
Significance
In conclusion this is significant because in that time two races were having a large conflict and the police made little effort to stop the riots that were caused by the current conflict. To make matters worse at the time the media (newspapers) were giving the two groups (Servicemen and Mexican Americans) a reason to be angry at each other, they were giving a bad influence. We can reflect on this event and make sure the whole story is covered so that to groups never clash in a primitive manner, as well as making sure the police do their job and fairly enforce the law.