Sara Hare American Civilization 1700 Chad Ostler April 22, 2014

Dueling Documents: Zooters And The Sleepy Lagoon Case

The two documents being discussed in the Zooters and the Sleepy Lagoon Case show two opposing viewpoints surrounding the murder of a Mexican Man, Jose Diaz, those being accused and convicted of the murder, and those doing the arresting and the convicting. During this period in history racial discrimination toward Mexicans and African Americans in the United States was a common problem, and many thought that law enforcement targeted the men they arrested based solely on their race and appearance. Furthermore, World War II was upon us and half the world was fighting, and the question has to be asked if it was a smart idea for the U.S. to mistreat and possibly create an enemy right next door in Mexico. In the first document the Los Angeles Sherriffs Department tries to put the case into perspective with a report basically claiming that violence and crime is a biological characteristic of Mexican people. The author, Edward Duran Ayres, makes a comparison of domestic cats (White Folk) to wild cats (Mexicans), and while they are from the same family they have certain biological characteristics so different that while one may be domesticated the other would have to be caged and kept in captivity. Ayres claims the same holds true for different races, and that all races are biologically predisposed to certain behaviors. For example, Ayres claims that Caucasians may fight, but their biological urge is to fight in a civilized manner such

as a fist fight and to sometimes kick each other. Mexicans on the other hand view that kind of fighting as a sign of weakness, and all he knows and feels is a desire to use a knife or some lethal weapon. Ayres believes that Mexicans have a biological desire to shed blood and kill. The second document is a letter in the defense of the Mexican people from the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee. I wasnt only the seventeen boys who were on trial. It was the whole Mexican people, and their children and their grandchildren. This points out that the Mexican American people were being discriminated against as a whole, for the crimes potentially committed by just a few boys. The Media started a build up for a Crime Wave that had yet to happen, and all of a sudden every Mexican kid in Los Angeles was under the suspicion of the Sherriffs office. The above fore mentioned Mr. Ayres (Foreign Relations Bureau of the Sherriffs office) had the police working off of a profiling system based on his Biological basis. The Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee responded to Mr. Ayres biological basis with this: How do you try a murder case on The biological basis? On that basis Hitler found every Jew in the world guilty. Touch Defense Committee, touch indeed. The final point the committee makes is that in a time of war the U.S. should be forming strong alliances with our neighbors, not creating new enemies. It really defeats the whole concept of the United Nations. When these documents are presented side by side it really paints a picture of the racial discrimination Mexican Americans were suffering from in the 1940s. Hispanics were denied many of their basic civil rights such as the right to vote, and they had a constant battle to fight when it came to receiving higher work wages or improved housing conditions. When the U.S. entered WWII, labor leaders threatened to organize a march on Washington to protest job

discrimination in the military and other defense related activities. In response, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, stating that all persons, regardless of race, creed, color or national origin, would be allowed to participate fully in the defense of the United States. Racial Discrimination and profiling has been an ongoing issue in the United States for hundreds of years, and while things have dramatically improved over the last sixty years it still proves to be a continuing issue. As seen in the case above mentioned, the Los Angeles Sherriffs department racially profiled Mexicans in Zoot Suits as gangsters and arrested handfuls of them based solely off of their appearance and Biological basis. The Zooters and the Sleepy Lagoon case was not the first time a group was racially profiled by another group, and it certainly wasnt the last. One could only hope that this kind of racism would have all but vanished by now with the improvements in society and the rise in tolerance, sadly though we continue to fight these battles in modern society.