Racial Profiling In Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit

In the past, racial profiling has been used numerous times by police officers and people who thought races other than white were the cause of every case and problem. They thought they were better because they were white and blamed people of other races for committing crimes by judging everyone based off ethnicity. In the play, Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez, Henry and the 38th Street Gang were accused of crimes they have not committed because they were Mexican- American. Today this is still seen society. The play’s messages was that people who were discriminated because they were not white, which is still relevant today. People of different races have been accused of stealing and assaults. In the play and today, people who are not white are falsely prosecuted for stealing. In Zoot Suit, Joey, a member of the 38th Street Gang and a friend of Henry, is allegedly accused of stealing his lawyer’s, George, car. When Tommy comes running in frantically, he exclaimed “‘¡Órale! There’s cops outside. They’re trying to arrest Joey.’... They got him against your car. They’re trying to say he stole it!’”(93) When Joey went outside with Tommy, he got pinned against George’s car by the police. Here it is clearly evident that because Joey is Mexican, he can be falsely charged for anything he did not do. Joey stepped out of Henry’s house and the police automatically assume that he’s trying to take George's car because they want another reason to put Joey back into jail and make the people

Currently any person of color, could be racially profiled like in Zoot Suit. Joey has been accused for stealing George’s car and Conley was accused for stealing an OLd Navy coat. The 300 Mexican-Americans that were gathered were accused of assaults and other crimes and Castro was accused for assaulting Benitez. All of these people were all accused because they were not white. They were either Mexican or black, not