In the night world of San Francisco, Fillmore Slim, Soulful Spider and
Bobby Joe from Baltimo' practice the same profession. All three are
black players in “the game”—pimps in the world of prostitution. They
and about 40 of their fellows, along with the hundred prostitutes who
support them, are the principals in a study submitted to the annual
convention of the American Anthropological Association. That study is
about to earn a Ph.D. and a professorship for its author, a shapely,
27-year-old redhead who, as “Tiger Red,” recently completed a stint as
a topless barroom go-go dancer. The $20-a-night job was Christina Milner's way of financing her graduate
work in anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. But
she soon found that her new colleagues were more interesting than the
primate fossils she was supposed to be studying. Propositioned by a
“player” and then threatened by his jealous “ho” , Tiger Red
learned that the bar was a hangout for players and hos. She enlisted
the help of her anthropologist husband, Richard, as fellow researcher
and began making friends with the bar habitues. As they struck up
conversations and collected taped interviews, the Milners came to the
conclusion that what they were doing was “no different from studying
any other remote culture.” Among academics, Christina soon came to be
known as “the Margaret Mead of North Beach.” To Iceberg Slim, a former pimp interviewed at great length by the
Milners, successful pimping requires an outright loathing for women.
“That's where the thrill was,” he said. “In the absolute vilification,
in the degradation. I had this intense hatred. To be a great pimp, I
think you've really got to hate your mother.” Bruce, a pimp who went to
college, thought that society had twisted and perverted the Biblical
role of the sexes: “Pimping goes back to the man controlling the
situation before Eve bit the apple, see, and brought him down to her
level and stuck the apple in his mouth. She was rebelling against
Adam's authority. When Adam let Eve tempt him into taking the apple, he
gave up his manhood, and today man is fighting to regain it.” Many players think that they have already won it back, and that pimps
are the only real men left in America. To get a feeling of control over
his stable of women—who may be either black or white and number from
two to 20 —the pimp makes them treat him deferentially, light his
cigarettes and speak only when spoken to. Said James, a pimp who, like
his favorite ho, is an excellent painter: “Notice how quiet she is. You
know why she's quiet? 'Cause I'm talking, not because she has nothing
to say. She's as smart as I am, or smarter; she got two degrees. But
she's a quiet, humble, beautiful woman because she knows the position
of her place, she likes it.” And he added: “Each ho thinks her man is
God. Do you understand how beautiful that is?” Iceberg Slim even
admitted to playing God, because “what lowly little whore can resist
God?”
