Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class

Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class

By: Lawrence Otis Graham  

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Average Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5

Debutante cotillions. Million-dollar homes. Summers in Martha's Vineyard. Membership in the Links, Jack & Jill, Deltas, Boule, and AKAs. An obsession with the right schools, families, social clubs, and skin complexion. This is the world of the black upper class and the focus of the first book written about the black elite by a member of this hard-to-penetrate group.

Author and TV commentator Lawrence Otis Graham, one of the nation's most prominent spokesmen on race and class, spent six years interviewing the wealthiest black families in America. He includes historical photos of a people that made their first millions in the 1870s. Graham tells who's in and who's not in the group today with separate chapters on the elite in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Nashville, and New Orleans. A new Introduction explains the controversy that the book elicited from both the black and white communities.

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Release Date: 1999-12-22

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Our Kind of Reading - An inside look at debutantes, Jack and Jill, Links and all of the requirements to be a part of the high levels of society. A must read to be really informed.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Veeeerrry Enlightening - It is terribly unfortunate that the race finds itself separate and unequal ironically among itself because of skin color. A diseased mentality, no doubt seared from slavery. Shameful and sad nonetheless, what will it take to remedy this tragedy? I say we put an end to the pavlovian reward of the need to be accepted and educate ourselves to earn the right to be respected based on character, good deeds and accomplishments rather than skin color, associations or even organizations like the NAACP.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
loved this book - I read this book at a time of my life where I struggled with skin color. Many may not like it for many reasons but it truly helped me come out of a fog about my experiences and observations and I commend the author for being brave enough to write it.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
our kind of people - Most interesting...A lot of information that has been known in the black community for years.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
"Wow, I didn't know that" - I haven't read the book in a few years, but the contents have stuck with me. I was dismayed at a lot of the eye-opening information - particularly about groups like Jack and Jill of America. I guess after facing segregation, some people decided to pass it on - only to members of their own race.

If you don't understand what I'm talking about, read this book and you'll say, like me, "Wow, I didn't know that."

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