CHAPTER 6
The description in the beginning of the chapter of the gambling puts the poverty in perspective. The people were willing to do anything, betting little penny hits in order to make some back with grossly unfavourable odds. The detail in which Malcolm describes the antics of the betters and those associated with it makes the desparity of the situation all the more sad.
Especially with the numbers, as a few people run a number for a whole year (which I think I would probably do as well) yet some people took to superstition and took numbers from cars, phone numbers, having a churchman pray for a number. And I thought this was just hilarious:
(Page 85)
"Recently, the last three numbers of the post office's new Zip Code for a postal district of Harlem hit, and one banker almost went broke. Let this very book circulate widely in the black ghettoes of the country, and -- although I'm no longer a gambling person -- I'd lay a small wager for your favourite charity that millions of dollars would be bet by my poor, foolish black brothers and sisters upon, say, whatever happens to be the number of this page, or whatever is the total of the whole book's pages."
Glad to know that he isn't a gambling person anymore, glad to know that he would bet for charity, and glad to know he is still aware of the superstitious nature of his black brothers/sisters and hopes to change it. This little side note is great and I'm glad Alex Haley included it in the book because it almost seems like a conversational piece where the two men were joking around. Good thing it was put in the story!
Interesting connection that you picked up between Malcolm and Alex Haley. Nice insight.
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