Zoot Suit And The Central Park Five Analysis

Language plays a major role in modern society. It is a powerful tool that can be used for good yet, the language itself can have a dangerous effect. Especially in the media. The media bias is shown in the play Zoot Suit and the case of The Central Park Five. Zoot Suit takes place in the 1940’s when racism against Mexican-Americans was alive and well. It follows the trial of Henry Reyna, a young Mexican-American ‘zoot suiter’, who is being wrongly accused of murder. The case and trial of the Central Park Five takes place in the late 1980’s. The case follows five youths of color who were wrongly convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder. Although none of the convicted men in both Zoot Suit and the Central Park Five, were actually
The consequences of these emotions are not good and can lead to an unjust punishment and lots of stereotyping and hatred targeted at black and latino teens . In the following days of the case of the Central Park Five, many newspapers were really unjust with their choice of words. In one of the New York Daily News articles, they wrote, “Bands of marauding teenagers similar to the one that ran wild in Central Park last week are creating pockets of anarchy in the city…”. This newspaper's choice of words creates a harmful image towards the convicted teens and others that are like them. Using words like ‘similar’ create the impression that all groups of young men that come together are all bad people and thus making people fear them leading to prejudice against them. Using phrases like ‘pockets of anarchy’ suggest that the young men are up to make trouble only. This usage of language can create fear. In another article by the New York daily News they wrote, “The gang of teenagers that raped a young investment banker in Central Park believed they had beaten her to death - and laughed about the vicious attack…”. Further showcasing the teenagers as dangerous and merciless. They use words like ‘gang’ and ‘death’ to portray them as violent and as a gang even though the group of guys had never met each other. They also use the phrase ‘laughed about the vicious attack’ to portray them as heartless. The media ended up making them look bad and thus making people hate them leading up to them wanting the teens to end up in jail, which they did. The use of language can create fear, hysteria, and prejudice leading to negative consequences. In both Zoot Suit and the Central Park Five, the media and the language they used led to the wrong people being convicted. The language reinforced many stereotypes that were not true and created a lot of fear of the wrong people. This