Red, the
shoeshine boy that
finds Slothrop's
bare ass floating in the
toilet bowl after
Tyrone dives into the
shitter to
chase after his
harmonica, is actually
Malcolm X.
Malcolm was a street hustler and shoeshine boy in Roxbury and Back Bay before moving to Harlem. While in Roxbury, he was known amongst his peers as Detroit Red (I don't know why he was called Detroit Red, when he moved to Roxbury from Lansing, and didn't live in Detroit until after he was released from prison). Pynchon even mentions in the book that his name is Malcolm ("slip me the talcum, Malcolm!" is the line, I think).