"The Numbers" is the lottery

THE 'NUMBERS' IS THE LOTTERY A woman just wrote on a friend's post that she remembers numbers runners sponsoring picnics and basketball games in her part of Philadelphia . That brought to mind how the game of "numbers"-- or "policy"-- running was invented by Caspar Holstein , a black elevator operator in New York, who devised the 600-1 odds lottery that was played for pennies , nickels and dimes in the 1920s-30s. As long as it was unknown to whites, in segregated Harlem, the numbers-runners, bankers and the insular black community thrived on its own internally recycled capital. Unfortunately, some began to flout their wealth, and white folks perked up, both the outlaws and scofflaws! Once numbers-running became known to white criminals, politicians, bankers, media, and prosecutors, that beautiful black enterprise was killed off! Mobsters moved in robbing, bombing, killing and stealing with impunity and immunity. Meanwhile, white prosecutors relentlessly pursued the blacks, including its founder, Caspar Holstein, whose large bet at a race track window, brought him and his "racket" to the avaricious attention of whites. He too went to jail, Danish West Indian, or not! Capital is outlawed in the collective hands of colored people it seems! That explains our abiding depravity! It is designed by government policy and practice to stifle our growth. What was once the numbers is now the lottery in all 50 states. What once had many little winners, with an entire community-supporting infrastructure, now awards only a minutely few people. What blacks had is no more!