Sammy the Pimp And Shorty - Characters, The Autobiography Of Malcolm X | The Autobiography of Malcolm X -Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels PDF Download

Shorty and Sammy are like the Jedi and the Sith in Star Wars. One represents the side of good, and one represents evil. You would have thought that it would have been easier for Malcolm to choose the good side, but we guess no one can resist double edged light sabers.

Shorty

Shorty is Malcolm's first friend he makes when he moves to the big city. He just wanders into a pool hall, strikes up a conversation, and bam! Best friends for life.

They happened to come from the same town in Michigan, and they became so close that Shorty got Malcolm his very first job. He also initiated Malcolm into the secret ways of using credit to buy zoot suits, hustling, and straightening his hair. In other words, Shorty made Malcolm cool.

Sammy the Pimp

Sammy is, well, a pimp. Not just any pimp, but a pimp who can read the minds of women. This is the guy who initiates Malcolm into the dark underworld of Harlem. It was Sammy's idea for Malcolm to become a drug dealer, and he's also the one who gets him addicted to heavy drugs.

Even though that doesn't sound so great, without him Malcolm probably wouldn't have lasted very long in Harlem. Sammy is kind of like Shorty version 2.0: now with more crime.

Best Friends

So what's the big deal about these two guys? They were both Malcolm's best friends. Whenever he was in trouble or he needed help, all he had to do was call on them and they would be there. Sammy gave Malcolm shelter when his home was being watched by the police, and Shorty took Malcolm out of New York when he was going to be killed by West Indian Archie. Those are some good friends.

But just as the Nation of Islam came between Malcolm and his brother Reginald, certain things separated Malcolm, Sammy, and Shorty. In the cases of both of these best friends, Malcolm is separated from them by drugs and crime. First, a high Malcolm assaults Sammy's girlfriend, and they are never able to be close friends afterwards. Then, Malcolm's scheme sends both him and Shorty (who probably wouldn't have been getting into trouble otherwise) into prison for 10 years. Just like with Reginald, Malcolm seems to regret his actions.

It seems like he often mistakenly values something over his close personal relationships, and doesn't realize how misguided he is until later. But it also might have been a good thing that he lost contact with these two guys.

The Light Side, The Dark Side, Or Neither?

You could say that Shorty and Sammy represent the path that Malcolm could have gone down. For Shorty, hustling was just a means to an end. He wouldn't have considered himself a hustler, but a musician. Sammy the Pimp, on the other hand, obviously defined himself by his illicit occupation. Shorty is the light side, and Sammy is the dark side.

If Malcolm had continued being close to Sammy, what would his life have looked like? Probably the same as Sammy’s. Malcolm tells us what happened to him:

And the first nasty shock came quickly, about Sammy. He had quit pimping, he had gotten pretty high up in the numbers business, and was doing well. Sammy even had married. Some fast young girl. But then shortly after his wedding one morning he was found lying dead across his bed—they said with twenty-five thousand dollars in his pockets. (13.35)

Dead on your honeymoon is probably not the way that he wanted to die, but it's not surprising considering the life that he lived.

What about Shorty? How did he end up? Malcolm says:

Shorty still had a little band, and he was doing fairly well. He was rightfully very proud that in prison he had studied music. I told him enough about Islam to see from his reactions that he didn't really want to hear it. In prison, he had misheard about our religion. He got me off the subject by making a joke. He said that he hadn't had enough pork chops and white women. I don't know if he has yet, or not. I know that he's married to a white woman now… and he's fat as a hog from eating hog. (13.24)

Sure it's not fancy, but we're pretty sure Shorty’s life with his girlfriend is a better deal than being killed shortly after your wedding.

If Malcolm had continued down Sammy's path, he may have ended up dead. And if he continued down Shorty's path, he probably would have ended up happy, but not the famous leader that we all know. Instead, Malcolm took a path in between these two, combining what he learned from Sammy and Shorty into something different.