Zoot(y), adj. [according to jazzman Zutty Singleton, the term was New Orleans patois for 'cute' (a suggested etym. differing from the one offered in 1943 quot., q.v.); some currency c. 1925-c. 1945, obs. since except historical; see also the much more widely current DAP, SHARP] Initially: see second 1946 quote; also, since c. 1935: see 1944 quot. 1943 New Yorker, 19 June, p. 14; As for the word 'zoot,' it is simply a corrupt form of 'suit.' 1946 The New Cab Calloway Hipster's Dictionary, s. v. zoot: overexaggerated as applied to clothes. 1946 Really the Blues, p. 311. Colored kids . . . work on their dungarees, pegging the legs till they're real sharp and zooty. - p. 376. zooty: stylish, fashionable. 1961 Down Beat, 13 Apr., p. 20. After World War II, like the clothing it described, the word zoot faded from use, except in satiric content - and as the nickname of a very great tenor player [i.e., Sims]. - Robert S. Gold, Jazz Talk We [pachucos] were a minority group of a minority group. So, in a way, we were challenging cops by being with two or three friends and dressing sharp. But in those days, I was prepared for any sacrifice to be able to dress the way I wanted to dress. I thought it looked sharp and neat, and it was the style. - Cesar Chavez, Autobiography of La Causa The interrelationships between black, Hispanic, and American popular culture are evident from an examination of the so-called riot that occurred in early June 1943 in Los Angeles. Such riots also took place elsewhere that year, but the first was in Southern California, where there were neither fatalities nor destruction of property - unlike in New York and Detroit; in Los Angeles, whites not only attacked and beat Mexican-Americans and blacks, but stripped from them their fashionable zootsuits. Finally, there was little retaliatory violence by the victims of racism, which was also a different pattern from eastern cities.(1) The zoot-suit was associated with black urban youth when it appeared on the scene around 1940. Malcolm X's autobiography recounted the importance of his first zoot-suit and suggested the style had racial connotations as the preferred choice of hip black men and entertainers. Youth of Mexican and Filipino descent were the prototypical wearers of the garb in Southern California, however. In other words, consideration of this aspect of black urban culture and clothing style revealed one of numerous instances of African-American influence upon Mexican-American, Filipino, and American popular culture; the jazz music and dances adopted by black and white teenagers also shaped popular culture among Mexican-American and Filipino youth, revealing African-American influences in areas of American culture where they are not expected or are not sufficiently acknowledged as evidence of the power and dynamism of black American culture.(2) By examining the Los Angeles dimension to the zoot suit phenomenon and the so-called riot, we can appreciate the extent to which the presence and acculturation of Mexican-Americans and Filipinos altered the usual black-white scenario, producing one that was more complex. Ideas about the zoot suit usually lack a strong historical and political dimension, and research on American history often has no popular culture dimension. Analysis of the Los Angeles zoot suit riot and journalists' and politicians' interpretations, and the outfit's connections with race relations, jazz music and dance, slang, and ideology, permit an understanding of the politics and social significance of what is often seen as trivial in itself - popular culture and its attendant styles. Zoot preceded the styles of the new music known as bebop by a few years, but both were a rebellion against accepted dress and musical styles and, moreover, they sometimes went beyond fashion and entertainment statements, embodying an intellectualized political position. …