Word: zoot
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Zoot-Suit Riots
...Your story of "Zoot-Suit War" in Los Angeles [TIME, June 21] certainly "jumped the gun" on facts. No mention of the several murders committed by "zoot-suit gangs"; no mention of unprovoked attacks by them; no mention of unguarded knives and brass knuckles found in their possession when "not doing anything"; no mention of two single women in different parts of the city beaten by female gang members...
With regard to zoot-suit disorders in Los Angeles, I think you have exaggerated the race angle out of all proportion. It is true that Mexican and Negro boys wear zoot suits out on the coast perhaps more than others. But to a soldier who has been taken from his home and put in the Army, the sight of young loafers of any race, color, creed, religion or color of hair loafing around in ridiculous clothes that cost $75 to $85 per suit is enough to make them...
...Mexicans and Negroes and all the rest of the zoot-suit fraternity want to avoid trouble, there is a very simple way. Just get out of a zoot suit and into a uniform or a pair of overalls...
...kind of low, clammy, soft-footed, zoot-suited, Persian prolixity and Madame Overdone Hotbed, bawdy and Baluchistan tribesman sort of spurious de luxe taste had crept in during . . . the past 20 years. Against all this the good gray typographer, B.R., has set his vertical spine...