Summary Of Robin Kelley's The Riddle Of The Zoot

Lange captures a moment between two “American” college students in 1942 that gives her an alchemist position by turning an erroneous, acrimonious point of time into a cooperative and patriotic time across the races in America, adding onto our misremembered past. Lange’s position was granted by the government to show that they were not mistreating the people they were evacuating, but through subliminal imagery depicted in the men’s body language, wardrobe, and their surroundings, she was able to show the reality of America during World War II. Authors like Okada and Kelley also assisted in helping show how American “nationalism” is lived and viewed in the perspective of the minorities in America during the time of this war.
One of the objectives …show more content…
Japanese Americans wearing zoot suits were not noted, but African Americans and Mexican Americans were well known for wearing these boots to show their rebellion during the war. In Robin Kelley’s work The Riddle of the Zoot: Malcolm Little and Black Cultural Politics During WWII, he discusses about what wearing a zoot suit meant during these times and the reaction that people had to them, and the consequences and life that the zoot suitors had. During a time of rationing, wearing a zoot suit was rebellious due to the fact that these suits took up a lot of fabric. While everyone else is being careful about the things they ate, wore, and did, these zoot suit wearers were flaunting around in their flashy suits, showing that they didn 't respect or care about nationalism in America. Newspapers called these men “unpatriotic dandies” and tension rose between them and servicemen when ended in violence. Riots would happen where the soldiers would rip the suits off of the zoot suit wearers, like in the 1943 riot in Los Angeles in June. The young men wearing the high waisted pants are making a bold statement. By wearing pants that are even similar to zoot suit pants, whether they actually go to zoot suits or not, is a bold statement about their rebellion to the United States. The man on the right accompanies it with the California belt which means that he is proud to be int he united states, but he also agrees with the African Americans and Mexican Americans across the country. All these young men are making a statement that says America is hypocritical for being in a war that deals with mistreating races, when America mistreated all races here except the white males and that our country is build upon the mistreating of