Harlem (New York, N.Y.); New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs
Broadway and theatrical women are not necessarily looser than other
women. But for many years, and especially during the 20's and 30's, in
vaudeville and musical revues it became the custom to introduce Negroes
into companies with whites; especially Negro musicians, who undoubtedly
have certain generic talents which white men cannot match.
It is a matter of long record that bandsmen rank high in the lists of
narcotics users. Many of our best-known white musicians have been in
public trouble over this weakness and thousands of others are known
within the profession to be so inclined.
Through the combination of the mingling of Negroes who used marijuana
when other dope was cheap and plentiful and still used it and could
get it and had established places to smoke it as the other drugs
evaporated, white women learned where they could get a "belt," a "jolt"
or a "gow." Reefer-smokers are called "gowsters."
To those who are "hooked," which in the argot means they have the
habit, the tea pad sessions are known as "kicking the gong around."
That's the origin of this often misused bit of modern idiom. A newcomer
into the fold is called a "joy popper." Occasional or slummers who
manage to crash, through a "connection," are called "RFD gowsters."
When one becomes so habituated that marijuana is an incurable
obsession, "the monkey is riding on his (or her) back."
Recently there has been a steady infiltration of society, bohemian
and co-ed recruits among white females who go to Harlem for its lurid
pleasures. Many women in the professional labor movement have heard the
call to prove openly that they are broad-minded. Many avowed Communists
all but push themselves on the Negroes and it is a tenet of the party
line in New York City that white women must go out of their way to
mingle with the colored comrades.
Not all these mix hashish with their politics. But sex is considered a
mandatory gesture of complete conversion.
Ironically enough, while all this over-emphasis on tolerance, equality
and the brotherhood of man has taken on the magnitude of big business,
the Negroes are decidedly anti-Semitic, and Jew-baiting is a constant
maneuver in organized and disorganized form. Certain Negro gangs,
mostly composed of zoot-suited teen-agers, make a regular practice of
it and call it "Jew-hunting." They find fertile ground for it in the
nearby Bronx and set off on expeditions to beat up Jewish children
going to and from school.
To understand the Negro as a gangster one must look with accusing eyes
at the white toughs who so long terrorized the Negroes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account