Rating: 
Summary: self-hating stereotypes, materialistic, grand-standing
Review: At first glance I understood Lawrence Otis Graham's treatment " Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class" to be an insider's attempt at examining the historic base and current state of racism and class-ism within the African-American community. I applaud Mr. Graham for putting this effort together. It is not an easy thing writing a book, whether deemed good or bad. However I was disappointed to find it a body of highly subjective affirmations of stereotypes, fawning over symbols of material affluence, and rife with blatant attempts by Mr. Graham to elevate his own personal stature in the eyes of his "black elite". He details with painstaking accuracy the excesses and foibles of successful black families in a variety of locations, capriciously lauding the actions of some while condemning others. He prefaces the book in a condescending voice describing his encounter with the late Reginald Lewis, then proceeds to recite personal anecdotes laced with stereotypes that are [unfortunately] a very real part of the black experience in America. I am saddened by the almost adoring voice he takes when recounting intra-racial prejudices I hoped we as a people had moved beyond. As a Howard man I am flattered [sort of] by his opinion of my school, but disappointed in his critical omission of any [by his definition] "lesser" historically black college and university or non-Ivy League institution. Education has been the defining mark of successful members of our community. I regret that Mr. Graham's definition of acceptable achievement is limited to just a few institutions. Mr. Graham makes note of the Greek system's commitment to the black community, but dismisses it by accusing them of being elitist on the basis of skin complexion and economic status. My family has a long tradition in the Black Greek system and are represented in four of its fraternities and three of its sororities. We come in all sizes, complexions, and economic distributions - simply put, the only use found for "brown bags" in our family were for bringing in groceries and taking out the trash! The true mark of an aristocracy is not in their material successes or accomplishments, but in their ability to uplift their people and improve the society at-large's overall quality of life. I pray that we as a people never feel so full of ourselves that we forget we are no better than the least of our brethren. I welcome works like "Our Kind of People" as they insight dialogue that inspires better understanding of ourselves. As Mr. Graham has shown, we have not exocised all of the demons of our past and there is much work still to be done.
Rating: 
Summary: Is this it ?
Review: Although, it was interesting to read the history of the black elite, Graham's failure to be more critical of this groups is it most glaring omission. Graham's star struck portrayal does him in. These people were not the leaders in the civil rights movement, but frowned upon it. Why isn't he asking the hard questions such as how could black colleges have denied admission to dark skinned blacks ? or, just how relevant are these organizations today ? Also, he is constantly referring to status symbols, mansions, rolls royces, etc. I would like to ask Graham if he ever dated a dark skinned black woman? It isn't an "accident" that his wife happens to look white? I feel sorry for the people listed in the book. they will now come across as shallow as graham.
Rating:
Summary: This should be an article in a 1950s Negro women's magazine
Review: lawrence Otis Graham seems to have found his nitch,writing fiction about concepts that really interst no one except curious whites who will get a strange perspective on African Americans. Trite and potentially dangerous are the key words to describe this waste of paper. Some of the revelation should be of embarrasment. How could you identify a group as upper class when this group does not have large identifiable residential communities, no large bank that these so-called people own and information on test scores suggesting that some of the children of these people score lower on standard achiement test than lowewr class whites and asians. When Mr. Graham got his rhinoplasty, the physician should have worked on his brain. Princeton and Harvard wasted their time on him. Since he obviously was not going to make partner at the law form he "left," this must be his new stock and trade. Get a real job Mr. Graham.
Rating:
Summary: Repetitive and boring
Review: After reading Jill Nelson's Volunteer Slavery and Shirlee Taylor Haizlip's The Sweeter The Juice several years ago, this is repetitive and boring. By the end of chapter 2, I was only interested in skimming the remaining chapters. But it is indeed an important reference book and should be in all libraries, private and public.
Rating:
Summary: hated it
Review: The majority of readers slamming graham's elitism are right on target. A minority of readers feel that that this book gives white folks insight into the black elite. But, believe me, this book isn't on their coffee table and is targeted clearly to black wannabees. The fact the Colin Powell isn't interested in being validated by the so called "black elite, speaks for itself.Salon magazine(salonmagazine.com) had two excellent reviews of this books a few weeks ago, one by Jill Nelson. She is part of this elite and slams it. She makes the point that black snobs just aren't any better that white snobs. Period. The sad thing is that many blacks will now read this book and (1) feel they really haven't "made it" (2) use it as a "blueprint" and try to desperately climb this pathetic ladder, just like Graham. As a black professional I am constantly trying to keep my sanity in a racist world. To read that other blacks view my dark skin, nappy hair, and non ivy league education as substandard, is sickening. Graham probably would have garnered more support if he had been more critical of the black elite. Instead, he is trying to become part of them. I guess now that he has gotten his nose job, he will commence with lightening his skin, ala Michael Jackson.
Rating:
Summary: Graham does a disservice to those he purports to represent
Review: I am not sure if Graham painted a distorted picture of Jack & Jill, the Links, Boule' and the frats and sororities as color obsessed, apolitical, "blue-veined" aspirants to a white society that didn't want them or if these groups really exist this way. Graham waxes poetic about the exclusivity, prestige and privilege that surrounds these groups, but you never see an objective look at what role these groups play in Black America. If Graham was trying to enlighten the rest of us, I suspect that he will really make those not in the elite resentful. I think that his portrayal of frats and sororities are the most flawed and I am not even a part of one. What was even more intriguing was the list of people who were not part of the black elite, including Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey. Never mind that one of the colleges Graham says is a good school for those in the elite (Spelman) received a $20 million gift from Cosby and he is an Omega (a proper frat). And the late Reginald Lewis, according to Graham, was not part of the elite until Graham clued him in to Jack & Jill. Dr. Betty Shabazz is included, in spite of her "rabble-rousing" husband, her skin color, her politics, her religion (Islam, not Episcopal) and lack of a blue-veined family tree because she was a good friend of Graham's mother, members of the same Jack & Jill chapter and both inducted into the Links at the same time. What's sad is that Graham doesn't even see the contradictions in his writing.
Rating:
Summary: Stuff & Nonsense
Review: When I mentioned the name of the author and title of this book to my grandmother, a snob of epic proportions, the first word out of her mouth was 'Parvenu'. Having read the book and spoken to her about its contents, she told me #1) The older families know who they are and don't feel the need to advertise their credentials to the public and #2) Several degrees from any particular university is not, in itself, an indicator of Class or Distinction. A truly worthy person knows this and doesn't flaunt superfluous information. Most of what this book mentions is either outdated or inaccurate. ( Jack & Jill has not been a truly exclusive organization for many years now.) Simple mistakes with certain individuals' names raise many an eyebrow. As an Ivy grad myself, I wonder if there is truly much need for such boasting in any case. I know who I am and who my family is without comparsion to other families, white or black nor has any of our vaulted credentials helped me in any substantial way. I am still a black woman subject to the slings and arrows of racism as much as anyone else. If we really need to congratulate ourselves for the creation of an artificial class structure based solely on bloodlines and Ivy/HBCU degrees in this day and age, isn't that, in itself, a problem?
Rating:
Summary: Deceptive In Its Research
Review: I read the book and thought it was decent. But I am giving it a one star rating because author Lawrence Otis Graham -- who claims he spent several years researching the black elite -- fails to explore their complexity. By complexity I mean showing that certain affluent and powerful blacks that he mentions in his book DID NOT want to be a member of the club (i.e they did not want to be part of the "official and sanctioned" black elite.) For example, powerful and affluent heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis was sought after to be a member of these black elitist organizations in the 1940s (as were his wealthy black managers John Roxbourough and Julian Black), but they thumbed their noses at them because they did not believe that elitist black clubs, in Jim Crow America, did our people any good. However, their wives (especially Louis's light-skinned wife, Marva Trotter) wanted desperately to belong -- and did. Louis often complained of spending thousands of dollars to help his wife belong to ritzy black organizations that had contempt for working poor blacks with Alabama/Michigan roots (Louis was born in Alabama, but moved to Detroit.) Small wonder why Louis cheated on her with Lena Horne, Lana Turner, and any showgirl that would come his way. In his book, Graham mentions Louis, Black, and Roxborough. Therefore, Graham obviously knew about the contempt these three black men had about black elitist groups -- but chose not to include it! The impression left with the reader is that Louis, Black, and Roxbourough approved of black elitist attitudes. They did not! Deceptive writing such as this makes at least one part of this book factually incorrect. Too bad! Criticism about the black elite from powerful and affluent blacks would have made this a very powerful, engrossing tome. It would have showed off the complexities of what it meant and means being black and affluent and powerful and elite in a nation that was, and to some extent still is, racist. In not being true to these complexities Graham robs "our kind of people" of their diversity, humanity, and impact. Worse: in the end, he makes "our kind of people" look as shallow as their white counterparts. Being black and powerful in the day was about substance -- not pedigree. If Louis, Black, and Roxborough were around today they'd say to Graham: "What makes you think that you are better than real achievers like Quincy Jones and Oprah Winfrey?" Now, a message to some of my fellow critics: Some of your very personal criticisms of Graham come off as "playa-hating." Don't hate the playa, hate the game!
Rating: 
Summary: Won't Congratulte but Won't Hate
Review: Like many other Los Angeles natives, I am a hard person to impress. If I want to see a celebrity, I can go to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles to see anyone I choose. Thus all of the name-dropping, and elitist ramblings found in this book are lost on me. Perhaps the elite in Los Angeles are different. I am not an elite. I'm sure I have met many, but in Los Angeles, nice cars and homes are not uncommon. My point is, when I've met them, I didn't know who they were. This is perhaps the way things should be. Those who are true elite (if you like that term, I do not) do not need to go on incessantly about their accomplishments. The greatest works will always speak for themselves. The fact that Mr. Graham attempts to let his readers know exactly who he is and where he belongs, shows that insecurity and self-hate are the greatest enemies of Blacks and not our elite. And to be sure, the worst kind of Black elites, are the ones who set out to become that very thing. The wanabees, and trying to bees. It is necessary for them to have white carpet in their living room, and not allow anyone to walk on it. It is necessary for them to have coronaries when someone puts a chip in the paint on their Benz (this is because they cannot go out and get a new one/or afford to get it fixed). I am not an elite, I just understand people. Mr. Graham does seem to be behind the times however. Most could care less about the clubs and resorts in this book, they are not relevant to anything current. At the same time I find it hard to totally hate this group of people. Former Georgetown coach John Thompson said "We are far too concerned with becoming equal, instead of better." The only thing I find overwhelmingly attractive about the Black elite is the fact that they know they were born equal to whites, and are only concerned with their own betterment. This to the extent that no one can deny them. They seek not to be denied by basis of finance, education, family history and least of all race. In this day and age Blacks face dire circumstances. So how can I dislike those of us who,in any form, value education, Black neighboorhoods and schools, Black achievement, our history and Black families? How can you?
Rating:
Summary: Appears to be weak, not reflective of true state of affairs
Review: I have just purchased this book from Amazon.com after being alerted by a friend in Tennessee. I am writing this because the reviews appear to hit many organizations I am and have been a part of, although, I don't consider and won't consider myself and my family part of some sort of " black elite", even though the four of us have 8 degrees between from Ivy and HBCU's. We participated in all that seems to be discussed in the book, Sag Harbor, Oak Bluffs, the fraternity, the sorority, my undergraduate class, the Links, the Girlfriends, The Guardsmen etc. All of that is now old news and was important 40 years ago. All of the running around socializing ended when the world opened up and all of us were released from the narrow world of black segregation, when these things were important. The only thing to come out of those experiences were some lifelong friends, and not much else,based on achievement and true friendship. Long ago, I personally began a search for the true contribution I could make, not what someone else "thinks" I should be doing. To that extent that I have left the trappings of that "jive" existence behind to teach in Europe, only missing some dear friends and not much else.
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