By: Mohamed Mohamed
After completing the book Blood Relations I began to ponder on the chapters. There were chapters that were somewhat a review and others that were just inspiring. However, the one chapter that I could not stop thinking about was chapter 9.
Chapter 9 of Blood Relation was about Harlem’s involvement with the ‘numbers game’. The numbers game can be compared to lottery; people were supposed to guess a three digit number that would win them a grand prize. This gambling business was illegal at the time and police were sent to Harlem to suppress it. Bankers, who often times kept their identity hidden to avoid arrest, controlled the ‘numbers game’. However, after successfully growing their business ‘underground’, the numbers game became very common despite its illegality. The bankers made a lot of money and therefore were able to influence people in office. They became very powerful individuals because the game gained tremendous popularity. With their money, bankers hired African Americans to help them. They also helped the African community in other ways. By investing their money in Harlem properties and businesses, bankers helped raise the community’s expectations about economic progress (p137). The idea was that they provided jobs and other opportunities for the African American community and at the same time the community gave back by further growing their business.
When I finished reading this chapter, I got the impression that these bankers were seen as the ‘good’ guys. As though saying what they were doing for Harlem helped the community greatly. However, what I notice is the bankers taking advantage of the community to grow their illegal business. The Bankers give part of their money back to the community and in doing so it is their way of flaunting their support. It shows that they care for the community and the people. However, this is all a businessman with a despicable business strategy. It is a strategy to use money to gain the respect and trust of Harlem and then in return increase loyal customers. All of it is a façade to keep the people playing the lottery game and help further grow their business.
The odds of winning the ‘numbers game’, like any gambling game, is very low. A person has a 1/1000 chance of guessing a three-digit number correctly. If a game requires a dollar to play and the winner gets 100$, that means for every 1000 players only one will win. The banker will collect 900$ and give the “winner” 100$. If you run the simulations in any case, you will find that the only true winner is the banker. Yet the book explains that ‘numbers game’ was very popular in Harlem community.
Today the lottery industry is one of the largest giants. From the 44 states that allow lottery, people spent an estimate of 68$ billion in 2013. People cannot seem to stop playing lotto. This is so because it is addictive and also because it is encouraged. Lottery is run by the state and in their advertisements playing lotto is portrayed as a way to give back to the community. For example, many lottery ads claim that a certain portion of the lottery money will be given towards education. Therefore, people are fooled to play in hopes of winning and in thinking that they are giving back to the community by playing. “Money in state budgets tends to move around a lot” so trying to focus money on one thing is nearly impossible. For example, North Carolina used 100$ million of lottery money to construct schools. However, this did not mean that the school construction budget has increase 100$ million more because while that money was flowing in, other money sources are flowing out. A portion of income taxes used to go to the school construction budget but that tax money went away and was substituted with lottery revenue (Oliver).
The lottery gives people hope. However, this hope is nothing but a façade. People in Harlem saw the ‘numbers game’ as an opportunity for “economic progress”; they saw it as hope (p137). Hope for better lives, hope to improve their circumstances, hope to finally compete with the white man, hope for progress but sadly it provided none of that. Lottery does nothing but change the course of money circulation. What Harlem has done is give this power to a handful of people and expected that the money stay circulating in Harlem. Now, some might claim that these individuals proved to be responsible because they did circulated the money in Harlem by investing in Harlem properties and businesses. Lottery money may directly improve one situation but it is at the same time indirectly harming and creating a more difficult situation somewhere else.
Finally, I would like to share this video that helped me in my mini research on lottery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PK-netuhHA
