IVIV (1) Watts, Tariq, Reet, Japanese?

[Doug Millison]

Re Sleepy Lagoon:

A zoot suit has a reet pleet, right?

Given the way Doc and Tariq lay it out while studying the map in his  
office, on p.17, I guess it doesn't surprise me to find this sort of  
complex history when we start looking for it outside of Pynchon's text.

Thanks for digging up this article, alice. On the money for the topic  
at hand!

>
> From: alice wellintown:
>>
>> Review by John Putman
>>
>> The Shifting Grounds of Race focuses primarily on how African
>> Americans and Japanese Americans both competed and cooperated with
>> each other as they struggled to improve their lives in a city that
>> celebrated its white character.

>> […]

>> “Negro Victory” became the slogan of LA’s African Americans with  
>> the
>> onset of war. Seizing the moment, black leaders expanded political
>> activism, claiming that the community’s participation in the war
>> demanded the end of segregation and discrimination. The Negro Victory
>> Committee organized protests to open jobs for local blacks and formed
>> grocery co-ops to overcome the unequal distribution of food to white
>> and black neighborhoods. Exploiting the rapid demand for labor, a
>> broad swath of local leaders together egged on the CIO’s efforts to
>> organize workers, especially African Americans. Despite the  
>> patriotism
>> and unity war promoted, Kurashige notes that white resistance  
>> remained
>> strong. When local white officials placed the entire Mexican [End  
>> Page
>> 112] community on trial during the infamous Sleepy Lagoon case, black
>> leaders publicly expressed support for the defendants because they
>> understood that Mexicans were a comfortable scapegoat in LA, whereas
>> in other cities blacks fulfilled that role. Racial progress in LA,
>> local newspaper editor Charlotte Bass claimed, could only be advanced
>> by a multiethnic front against continuing white defiance. The war
>> years taught African Americans, Kurashige concludes, that racial
>> progress still depended upon government intervention.
>>
>> In one of his best chapters, Kurashige examines the difficult process
>> of reintegrating Japanese Americans following the closure of the
>> internment camps. Tensions were high in LA’s Eastside where  
>> returning
>> internees found that African Americans had largely taken over Little
>> Tokyo. …