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A West Virginia Town Applied For Soviet Foreign Aid, and Other Lesser Known American History Facts

Khalid Elhassan February 21, 2020 33 min

Vulcan - McDowell County — Vulcan miners in 1919. The Sangha Kommune

17. The Fashion Fad That Produced Mayhem

Servicemen rampaging during the Zoot Suit Riots. History Channel

In an ever-changing world, there are some constants, such as death, taxes… and teenage fashion fads that tick off their elders and the rest of society. Whether neon spiked hair, colored Mohawks, body piercings, Goth getups, or sagging pants, teenagers seldom have trouble annoying older generations – who had forgotten how annoying they had been in their teens.

However, few backlashes against teen style were as extreme – or violent – as that which occurred during WWII. Known as the Zoot Suit Riots, they combined negative fashion feedback with a huge dollop of racism and led to hundreds of assaults and acts of violence in cities as far apart as LA and NYC.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.