Dueling Document Zooters and the Sleepy Lagoon Case Brett Barratt Chad Ostler American Civilization Tuesday

sday 7-10PM
This set of dueling documents concerns individuals of Mexican descent set at the time of a wave of racist sentiments at the early involvement of the United States in World War II. The document by Edward Ayres depicts Mexicans as a substantially different breed of humans from Caucasians lumping them in with Oriental, which being around the time that Japanese were being relocated into concentration camps may attempt to link some of that fear to a new target. The defending document, presented by the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee also plays on sentiments of the American people with the World War by comparing such racially charged accusations with Hitlers persecution of Jews. Ayres document portrays the Mexican people as Oriental apparently forgetting the current dominant Spanish/European influence on the gene pool and paints them with several characteristics that he again states are conferred with the Oriental descent including a complete disregard for the value of human life and lack of self-control. Overall, he makes the comparison of the differences of a wild cat to a domestic cat in that while being from the same animal family, have picked up differing traits which makes them into distinct races. At one point, he makes the case for nature vs. nurture by stating that Japanese and Chinese descendants in California have been thoroughly discriminated against and never showed any trouble. The document shows that he acknowledges the differing conditions in general between Caucasians and Mexicans and its still largely a matter of genetics that indicate why a Mexican would be prone to violence and other crime. Furthermore, in the trial, he did make the case that such a killing was quite similar to the types of human sacrifice practiced by the Aztecs approximately 800 years ago. The Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee counters that the reported violence and crime problem is largely a creation of the media. It states that Mexicans were singled out and attacked by police for the

way they dress, hair style, and in general being Mexican. It goes on to compare the biological case by Ayres to the biological case against Jews by Hitler. It then further reinforces the issue by stating the biological case represents the whole of South America of 130,000,000 as guilty by birth. The Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee shows a more intelligent view of the situation and overall big picture of American politics at the time. By referencing Roosevelts work in South America, the Good Neighbor policy, and the overall cooperation by the Americas during the second World War for mutual defense, it shows that we either accept each other and work as allies, or choose to view them all as enemies. With the outcome of the war far from decided at this point, it makes the case that America must trust in our allies. Furthermore, seeing that many recruits into the United States army were of Mexican descent, it seems to understand the critical need to not alienate an entire people based on the drummed up fears presented by the media with a poorly understood murder case. The Committee led an excellent rebuttal, linking Ayres document to Nazi attitude towards Jews and showing the full ramifications in the dangerous thinking of using a biological basis as evidence in a court case. Mexicans, Central Americans, and South Americans all played a vital role in World War II, and using such dangerous thinking to alienate and possibly create a new enemy at the United States door step of 130,000,000+ people could completely undo the United States. It is possible with the strong link in the argument to Oriental that Ayres was swept up in the Japanese-American fears at the beginning of the war and looking for additional groups to blame for the problems of the country. With the way in which the country did inter the Japanese-Americans, it shows that public sentiment would be capable at the time of turning on another group, we are just fortunate that more rational groups such as the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee stepped in to keep a hostile situation from spinning further out of control.