Black players: The Secret World of Black pimps [Hardcover]

Christina Milner (Author), Richard Milner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1973

Originally published in 1973, Black Players was the first book to do a thorough examination of the urban pimp culture. Social anthropologists Richard and Christina Milner were allowed access to the secretive and controversial world of pimps and prostitutes. Black Player guides the reader through every aspect of this unfamiliar world, allowing the Players to describe themselves, and the rules of the game in their own words. The Milners interviewed many of the top pimps in the Bay area and other parts of the country during the late 60's/early 70's. There is even a rare interview with legendary pimp-turned-author Iceberg Slim in this book. Out of this experience, has come one of the most fascinating journeys into a secret culture ever written.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 329 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 1st edition (1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316574112
• ISBN-13: 978-0316574112
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,423,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary, March 17, 2007

By 

Ordinary Language - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black players: The Secret World of Black pimps (Hardcover)

Milner, a white graduate student at Berkeley, working for years as a stripper in San Francisco wrote this personal and academic study of pimp culture in the Bay Area during the late 60s. As a stripper working in establishments with "player's club" sections, she had ready access to lounging pimps eager to add her to their "stable". From a dependable factual foundation of dozens of participating pimps, she writes a study amazing in scope and readable detail.

When I claim wide scope, I mean the richness of subjects spans anthropology, social psychology, and sociology. In an eye opening chapter she explains the culture's patriarchal ideology, catechism, and symbols. Drawing from Scripture, the pimps narrate the fall of Adam and Eve, reworking the story to become a symbol of the defeat of mankind by woman. The story propels a pimp system of beliefs that asserts "square" society--all of us but them--is ruled by women and pimp culture is the last bastion of male domination in the Western world. I was invigorated by this new approach to gender relations. The claims are outrageous but these men are living their bluster, and that will make them credible enough for you to rethink to your relationship to the other gender.

That's enough material to make for amazing reading but it's just introductory. A large section will not disappoint--it's probably more than you could hope when you first sought a pimp studies book. In instructional detail, the mechanisms for controlling hos are explained. For any square the psychology of control is not intuitive. Pimps do not shy away from violence but the method of operation is psychological submission. The pimp must be a master of manipulation because the relationship between pimp and ho is an inversion of gender role. The pimp builds alpha magnetism, inspiring the sexual worship of his ho, a conquest so commanding that she becomes the wage earner so she may court his affection, allowing him to have the leisure to shop for fine clothes--quite an inversion.

This is a sociological work covering the bread and butter topics of the department such as race, deviance, and law, giving the book an academic comprehensiveness. The book manages to be intelligent and pure as an academic treatment and remains readable, the prose infused with the flair of that gilded age and place, late 60s San Francisco. The sociological observations spring from wacky encounters between hippies and pimps living in the same neighborhood, pimp war and peace, and more good times.

Find a research library and find this book.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of a kind. A truly unique study., March 1, 2005

By 

Justo Roteta (Los Angeles, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black players: The Secret World of Black pimps (Hardcover)

This book was the product of an anthropological study regarding both the lifestyles and subculture of San Francisco Bay Area pimps and their prostitutes. Given the fact that the authors befriended many of the local pimps prior to interviewing them they were able to obtain a lot of information that would otherwise have been unavailable. In short, this book gives us a truly unique look at one of America's most controversial subcultures.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Out of many One, March 15, 2005

By 

R. Allen "Sugar Pimp" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black players: The Secret World of Black pimps (Hardcover)

This is the book that anyone, anyone, Anyone who wants to know about the game should start out with. I read this book in a research library then purchased it. It is the only book that I have ever seen that truly depicts the life objectively and fairly. Thorough, factual, multi-faceted, "real," and scholarly. This book is truly worth $100.00.