This American Life - 127: Pimp Anthropology

Broadcast on: 16 Apr 1999

We like to believe that there are laws among thieves. We like to believe that there are rules of honor, that when Michael Corleone orders a mob hit, it's because some code has been violated, that if Tony Soprano chokes a guy to death in a parking lot, it is because that guy broke some rule that he deserved it somehow. This is one of the most romantic ideas that we have about crime, that there could be a system, that there could be ancient, strict rules, and that there are people out there who actually try to follow those rules, you know? And at one level, of course we want to believe that. Of course we want to believe that it's all so orderly, rather than the thing that we fear about crime, which is that it's random and can strike us at any time, that it's senseless. If there's a system, if there are rules, if it's a business, you know, it doesn't even seem like crime. Well, it turns out that there's a classic American primer about the laws of pimps and pimping. Written in 1968, Iceberg Slims pimp the story of my life. In it, Iceberg Slim explains the rules of being a successful pimp. It is such a clearly defined tradition, the way he tells it, that at one point, he visits an older pimp for advice, and the guy doesn't just give him the advice. He begins by laying out the entire history of pimping in the Americas, and then he gives him the pointers on how to pimp by the book. By the book is always said in this reverential way, when you read Iceberg Slim. By the book means when it comes to pimping, knowing that you're using people, outmaneuvering them when they try to play you, and never getting sentimental about it. It's business. Today on our program, a former pimp makes the case that in Oakland, California, in the 1970s, in the last heyday of American pimps, and a stronghold of American pimping, the rules of the game that Iceberg Slim describes were not just a reassuring fiction, but a way of life for hundreds of people, maybe thousands.

Welcome to WB-EZ Chicago, and Public Radio International, it's just American life and my red glass.

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