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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 14. The Negro in Business, the Professions, Public Service and Other White Collar Occupations - 9. Negro Professionals of the Stage, Screen and Orchestra - 10. Note on Shady Occupations
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330 An American Dilemma
town theaters. Nightclubs, dancing halls, and other places, both in white
and in Negro sections, provide additional employment. Most of these
places are owned by whites, even though the entertainers are entirely
Negro.^^ There are a few hundred Negro artists in Hollywood, but the
pattern of using Negroes almost exclusively as extras or in minor parts
—
which, with a few exceptions, caricature the Negro—makes the economic
opportunities for the Negro screen actor extremely limited. In 1935, for
example, the total salaries paid to Negro actors by the film industry did
not amount to more than $^7,000.’’’’ Negro musicians usually belong to
the powerful American Federation of Musicians (A. F. of L.). In the
South they are generally organized in separate locals, and the same segre-
gational practice prevails in many Northern cities as well. New York is one
of the few centers where Negro musicians are treated as equals by the
union. White locals often have jurisdiction over radio stations, theaters,
and other large places of employment, and Negro musicians, in such cases,
cannot work there without special permission from their white competi-
tors.’®
10. Note on Shady Occupations
In the cities, particularly in the big cities, there is a Negro “under-
world.”” To it belong not only petty thieves and racketeers, prostitutes
and pimps, bootleggers, dope addicts, and so on,® but also a number of
“big shots” organizing and controlling crime, vice, and racketeering, as
well as other more innocent forms of illegal activity such as gambling
—
particularly the “policy,” or the “numbers,” game. The underworld has,
therefore, an upper class and a middle class as well as a lower class.
The shady upper class is composed mainly of the “policy” kings. They
are the most important members of the underworld from the point of
view of their numbers, their wealth and their power. The policy game
started in the Negro commvuiity’® and has a long history.’® This game
caught on quickly among Negroes because one may bet as little as a penny,
and the rewards are high if one wins (as much as 600 to i). In a com-
munity where most of the people are either on relief or in the lowest
income brackets such rewards must appear exceptionally alluring. The
average amoimts bet each year, however, often amount to a staggering
sum in relation to the average incomes in the Negro community,®® and the
financial return is, of course, nothing for most people. From the entre-
preneur’s point of view, the game is a sure thing. During most of its history
the policy racket in the Negro community has been monopolized by
Negroes.®’ Otherwise respectable businessmen have had a controlling inter-
est in the numbers racket®® (perhaps because large returns in otW enter-
prises were rare), and many }>o»a fide ga.ngsters often own real estate and
* Crime statistics, as further explained in Chapter 44, Section 2, give a grossly exaggerated
idea of how Negro crime and vice compare with white crime.
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