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

by Lawrence Otis Graham

Now a TV series on FOX starring Morris Chestnut, Yaya DaCosta, Nadine Ellis, and Joe Morton. "Fascinating. . . . [Graham] has made a major contribution both to African-American studies and the larger American picture."  — New York Times 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, African American, Race, Sociology, Historical, Cultural

406 pages, Paperback

First published January 6, 1999

About the author

Lawrence Otis Graham was an American attorney, political analyst, cultural influencer and celebrated New York Times best-selling author.

Reviews

[Zain · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Paper Bag Test!

Most black people know what I mean when I mention the “paper bag test,” ancestors have told us about it.

For those of you who are not in the know…you have to be lighter than a brown bag to join a church, school, club or anything or anyplace that American black elites are a part of.

Yes, color bigotry amongst black people, which started during slavery was once a big thing in America and black history, and in many places it still is.

But this book tries hard to justify all the horrific things that the black elite in America represents in their personal disgusting, disdain against poor black people in America.

Unfortunately, for the subject matter, which by itself is interesting, the book is ponderous and tedious.

A snob factory…

Two stars. 💫💫

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black people are diverse. We don't all live the hood, we weren't all raised without fathers, we don't all attend failing public schools.

Those things are true for a lot of Black people, just like those things are true for White people, LatinX people, Asian people.

But if you watch mainstream media you would think that all Black suffer the same way. I don't know how many times a White person has just assumed I knew some Black person they know.

WE DON'T ALL KNOW EACH OTHER!

I have a vivid memory of my 3rd grade teacher(a White woman) being surprised that my parents were married(she would have been really shocked to know that my dad probably made 3x what she made as a teacher).

All this is to say that just like there are upper class White people. There too are upper class people of color.

The Black upper class is an exclusive and weird class of people. My immediate family isn't considered part of this elite class but I do have a wing of my family that is apart of this group. They attended Black private schools, went to Historically Black Colleges and are members of elite Black social clubs. There are people in my family who if they wanted to, could live as White people. Blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin.

These people exist.

Lawrence Otis Graham is the perfect author to draw attention to this society, since he is apart of it. Our Kind of People mostly focuses on the rich Black society of big cities like New York, Chicago, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Atlanta and New Orleans... but every state has these enclaves. I live on the Kentucky/Ohio border and have family in both states and both states have a city that rich Black people flock to(I won't out them but No its not the cities you're think of).

I had many different emotions while reading this book. I was angry at how pompous these people are, I laughed at the ridiculousness of these people, and I was proud of the accomplishments of these people. I can't help be feel proud of successful Black people(until they do something shitty).

Our Kind of People isn't just a history of successful Black people, its a history of America. Because despite how much White people try to erase the accomplishments of Black people, there would be no American society with us. Our successes helped America succeed.

Not all Black history needs to be about misery and suffering. Sometimes it feels good to read about how Black families went from slavery to being successful business owners and millionaires.

A Must Read!

[Lauren Cecile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the world is unaware there is a black aristocracy, a privileged class. This was an interesting, necessary and well-researched book, although the author's tone was a little pretentious.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very enlightening look at a subset of culture I didn't know existed. Sport stars and entertainers don't count -- wealthy, privileged black Americans have contributed greatly to the fabric of our country, yet the media rarely features them.

I actually read this some years ago, but mention it now because I just finished Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns, and there were a couple of references to the black society clubs Our Kind of People details, so I glanced at this again. I also think this book is an interesting complement to the other, because it makes you realize that the struggle for many was not always the struggle for all. This is both good and bad, but important to understand if we are to continue to make progress in race relations as people of the world.

Unfortunately, the author's style of writing makes this book a little tedious at times. Look beyond that and go deeper into the story he's trying to tell. Research the people he references, note their accomplishments.

[Nichole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished reading this book a couple of days ago. What a book! I liked it. I will confess that I was in a blabby mood when I chose it. I confess that I wanted to read a book that spilled the beans, that told secrets: a shallow gossip book about snobs and their bitter victims.

On the one hand, this book fulfilled my shallow reading wishes. Lawrence Otis Graham wrote this book with a campy and acidic flair. He did not leave a single elite soul out. The reading was sometimes hilarious in that he recorded everything (I do mean everything!!!) about these people: every black upper-class organization and the years they were founded, the names of the founders, cities where they were founded, elite families and notable ancestors, their churches, colleges, college degrees, careers, accomplishments, vacation spots, and scandals. AKAs, Deltas, cotillions, the Boule, and Martha's Vineyard, etc. Some pages contained nothing but the names of the socially-prominent. Nothing but names. This book often made for merry reading. Graham wanted to chat about rich folks and I loved it.

On the other hand, I sensed Graham's love for this group. He was proud of them, and I don't blame him. I saw no reason for shame. The black elite are people to revere. Why? Because Graham's "kind of people" are generationally well-educated, hard-working, reserved, and ambitious. As this book reveals, they occupy the fields of medicine, law, politics, education, and finance. They are socialites, intellectuals, activists, and entrepreneurs. They are the founders of hospitals and universities. Uplifters of the less fortunate. They are a determined people, and their elite status is well-earned.

I concur with Graham: successful African-Americans have to stop groveling and apologizing to the envious for their success. Success is the product of intelligence and effort. They are envied because they are superb, with a strong work ethic and can-do spirit. I am very proud of the black upper-class, even though I am not wealthy. I am a member of the black middle class. My relatives were accepted into the most popular Greek-letter organizations detailed in the book. My childhood was spent in kiddie versions of these clubs, and I was a debutante in high school.

The black elite is the ultimate American success story.

[jalylah · Rating 2 out of 5]

what can you say about l.o.g. that isn't self evident. he's pretentious and so is this book but he performs a necessary service for white americans who often don't recognize class distinctions in black communities and, sadly, many of us who mistakenly think that our means, whether modest or middle, are all there is when it comes to black folks. there is more academic work on class distictions from the slave ship on but i wouldn't dismiss this book.

[Miya (severe pain struggles, slower at the moment) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me a while to get through. It is interesting and enlightening, but it was hard for me to read. It made me feel really upset at moments. Any serious separation between classes (or anything else) just hurts my heart. History lovers may like this.

[Shenell Houston · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written to give America the inside scoop of the "Black Elite of America," something that is rarely shown or heard of. The author begins by introducing us to his whole reasoning behind the book. Graham is a self-professed "Black Elite" and was sparked to write this book after meeting with a very successful, wealthy, and influential African American business man who asked how he should go about ensuring his daughters had a "black experience." You see, this man felt his luxury had only provided his daughters with a white existence as they had lived in a Caucasian neighborhood, gone to predominately Caucasian schools, etc and felt that he had not properly balanced his and his daughters life in both worlds: that of the African Americans and that of the Caucasians.And from here the horse race begins.
Graham gives us the origins of the "Black Elite" which I appreciated as it showed that African-Americans of today came from more than just slaves; they also came from free blacks who had never been enslaved, indentured servants, and immigrants who willingly came to the New World. Another thing I found enjoyable from the book was, the "Black Elite checklist." Each chapter was an item on the list and it basically serves as "this is how you know you're a 'black elite.'" For each item of the list Graham explained the historical background and the significance such as Chapter 3 when he discusses the Black Debutante Balls. I won't go too much into detail here as you can read it yourself, so I'll be moving along. One thing I did seem to notice is that the author provides us with a lot of names that are used repeatedly throughout the book. it just really kept bugging me because I was like, "Do you know anybody else, or is the 'Black Elite' really that freakin' small?!" I don't know it was just something about it. If I had to read about so-in-so one more time I was going to burst! What I really kept wondering while reading this book was, "Is the checklist still relevant?" This book was published in 1999, so, much has changed since then and I personally felt that, if based solely off the "checklist", many African Americans could consider themselves "Black Elite" minus the money. I think it would be really interesting to see Lawrence Graham do a new edition of this book to see how much, if any, has now changed to the "checklist." Okay, so now for the second part of this book. For the second part, Graham breaks down the history of the "Black Elite" in several major cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, Washington D.C., etc. Each city gets its own chapter. I really feel like this entire section of the book was uncalled for. After reading the first two cities, I quickly got bored. I soon started asking myself, "Who cares?" Once again it was all the same people. Even in different cities, the people the author interviewed had connections to previous names mentioned in previous cities. I hate to say it but this part of the book made me really dislike it, so much that I even contemplated not finishing it. Well I didn't exactly not finish it. I just skipped the other cities and went straight to the last chapter: skin color. Now this chapter, I felt, deserved a lot more time then it got. To me, it felt like the author was in a rush to wrap things up and did not get the spotlight it deserved. Basically the chapter discusses the taboo of "passing," meaning a fair complected African American passing as a Caucasian person and choosing to live as a Caucasian. I just felt like this chapter deserved so much more because: one, elite or poor it is something all African Americans have discussed and/or dealt with in their family and two, it is something that many non-African Americans know nothing about. Overall, the book was just okay to me. Would I read it again? Definitely not. Would I suggest it to a friend? Yes. Although it was just okay, I feel this book is very beneficial to anyone who wants to broaden their mind about a certain group of people and expand their knowledge. After all, this book isn't just for African American people, it's for Our Kind of People.

[Latonya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lawrence Otis Graham gives a pretentious, shallow, and rather obnoxious portrayal of the 1900s black elite. Reading this book in 2016 seems outdated and almost silly. Debutante cotillions. Million-dollar homes. Summers in Martha's Vineyard. Membership in the Links, Jack & Jill, Deltas, Boule, and AKAs. For the black elite, there was/is an obsession with the right schools, families, social clubs, and skin complexion. Does this really still apply? Perhaps. But the black upper middle class has expanded so much that some of the key concepts such as generations of Morehouse men in your family if you live in Atlanta or how many summers you've spent at Sag Harbor are so stale. The last few chapters on black elite in various cities was a yawnfest. I feel sorry for the uppity and exaggerated superiority views of some of the interviewees in the book. It seems plain silly to only want to be amongst snobby black folks all the time. Sad actually.

[Dawniece · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the most painful books I have ever read.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed reading this book. It's a fascinating study of affluent black Americans--the blacks we rarely hear about unless they are celebrities. Graham presents a world that I'd heard my parents talk about but that I never experienced. I grew up in a working class/middle class neighborhood. I didn't know anything about debutant cotillions or summers in Martha's Vineyard until I was in college and was invited as a guest. I read the book as research for a novel I am writing, and I am so glad I found it.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I applaud this author for writing a fascinating book about the Black Upper Class. There are so many books about Blacks being slaves that I grew tired of reading about it. Although it is apart of history, can we at least talk about their culture or how at one time they were Kings and Queens? I must have seen every movie relating to slavery or when we were subordinate. I am so tired of the stereotypes, pardon my tangent but that annoys me. Now unto this book, I have to say that the writing style was compelling but very wordy. I skimmed a few passages because of how repetitive and dense it was at times, but I admired how rich the content was. However, it was not a book that caught me by surprise.

Originally I thought I was going to be about African Americans in the 1800s,, but it was mainly about the author story of how he discovered how rich the culture of African Americans was. Told from his own personal story and how he was raised by the people around him. I think the culture is too rich to cover it all but the author did a great job hitting the highlights. I decided to read this mainly because I am taking a race class that aligns very close to the contents of this book.

It was a much needed true story, glad that the author had the courage to write such a daring book.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a chosen book club read. I thought the topic of the elite black in American history would be interesting and a subject that is not often discussed. Although I found some of the information worth while, it read more like a dissertation or senior thesis. There were many names and facts, and I found myself thumbing through chapters. For me, the book was short on substance. Maybe there just wasn't enough personal reflection or life stories that could keep me engaged.

[Afrijewel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is worthy of a bookclub discussion. I stumbled across this one while I was at the Upham's Corner Library in MA. I saw it there a couple of times. I decided to peruse through it and found that it might open my eyes and brain to another world I was not entirely knowledgable about. So with that said if you want to get an inside view of the so-called Black Elite/Old Guard/Black Greek and so forth...try reading "Our Kind of People". I think the opening to this Non-Fiction outline is well written and informed but then I feel that the information gathered and presented contradicts itself in many sections of the book. The author himself gets really caught in the names and lineage of this and that person. It is obvious that the concern is not clearly about those in need and helping or guiding them to be where they are i.e. Links, Boule, Girl Friends, Jack and Jill. It is more or less if you already exist in the circle or if you have the monetary means to be considered then you are worthy to them. My words to that "ridiculous and bull****". But I can appreciate in a weird way where they are coming from. Since the Black Elite have worked so hard to maintain themselves, their traditions and their families. I will still give the book a good reference as it opens the door for discussion on the perspective that I may have and the perspective of the author Mr. Lawrence Otis Graham and those in between. We are all of great worth in our own rights and it is a shame that other blacks would think otherwise. The most important piece that I have taken from this early on in the beginning 5 chapters is that we as blacks should never feel that we cannot accomplish that of what white people have. We should never be ashamed of our accomplishments and should continue forward on an upward path all the while knowing where we come from. We are just as smart (if not smarter) and or as wealthly as them. It may be harder, however we do have culture, we have invented, we have created, we did not steal. We have earned so much. The sad part is that their "WE" in Our Kind of People does not include all blacks. You have to be a certain skin tone or have to have a certain lineage or certain connection to the social organizations... PLEASE READ and discuss. Areas of reference Washington DC, New York, Massachusetts, Georgia, Michigan and Tennessee.

[KiKi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m all for Black people doing well for themselves - but I’m not into millionaires and billionaires and the hoarding of wealth - no matter the race. The amount of snobbery, colourism and lightskinned Black nonsense in this book is ridiculous - and I say that as a lightskinned Black woman. The chapter on Black frats and sororities was interesting and one of the prime reasons for wanting to read this book. As was the chapter on the history of Black elites in Detroit - but to look down on Motown stars because they weren’t - in the author’s view - “highly educated”? They were too “new money”? “Coarse?”
Ridiculous.

Even more so was the Black woman who said “white women don’t speak with poor white women...why should I speak to [poor Black women]?”

We know these people exist. It’s just sad they look down on others because of their social status and their disdain for darkskinned people. They all can choke on their burnt Champagne.

[Vivienne Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book, which focuses primarily on wealthy African American who are rarely talked about or seen in the mainstream media. Looking back historically to the rise of the middle and upper class Blacks, along with their pettiness and generosity, the reader gets a excellent understanding as to why there is such a disconnect among African Americans today. With all of the trials and tribulations that African Americans have had to face since being brought to this country, namely Jim Crow laws, discrimination and segregation, it is great to see how these influential people and their organizations were able to and still do produce some of the most successful men and women. These individuals continue to contribute to this country, and yet there is still a divide among its citizens based on income, education, social status and color. This book should be mandatory reading in schools. The author has brought us a priceless piece of history.

[Heather Gibbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

19 hours on audible?? Definitely not worth it. This book could have been condensed by 75%. It may have been informative for some people, but I do not think anything in here is surprising or informational for the major of the black population.

[Temi Abimbola · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You cannot understand the history of black Atlanta or Black America if you don't include its upper-class. Only then will the story be Complete"- Dr Carole Merritt


This was a very informative piece from Lawrence Otis Graham, the first book I've read from Mr Graham and definitely not the last.

He has a great way of writing multiple accounts of prominent stories in such a well-structured and flowing manner. While I'm used to losing grip on books with a collection of biographies, these stories were far from disjointed and bland. This book informed me on so much history that seemed overlooked and purposely left out of the African-American experience.

From an outsiders perspective (a Black reader from the UK), Black-America has always been projected as the permanent under-class of American society, with a few strides of success that are internationally celebrated in the diaspora and in every nation and people. But this book opened my eyes to a wider and a more established form of Black America, a community that had a long lineage and a huge network of professionals.
It shocked me more than it intrigued me, accounts like these should be made into TV doc series, simply bringing a light to a world attainable to Black America.

For almost 3-4 years, I was discouraged from reading Mr Graham's book from the negative reception this book got and the countless reviews I've read and watched (review- vlogs) giving these accounts as distasteful and appalling.
It wasn't much to do with Lawrence Graham's form of writing, or personal opinions of the upper-class, but more so of the culture practiced in these circles. It seems The black bourgeoisie drew a lot of disgust from the general Black-American population.
Words like; "Uncle Tom", "Sellouts", "Uppity", seemed to be thrown up the most.

Then coming from an outsiders' point of view, I'm delighted by the family affiliations and distinctions to the black circles mentioned in this book, it was refreshing to know that black Americans created an economic bubble/shelter away from the hatred and bigotry created by White America throughout the 19th-20th century.
What amazed me more was a solid understanding of who, what and where we could find black excellence across the states.

The accounts of Atlanta intrigued me the most, as it demonstrated a true correlation between blacks striving in education, entrepreneurship and politics in order to turn a city into an oasis of black excellence, one that had over half a century of only black mayors. Especially with their HBCUs and well-connected Black churches, Atlanta remains a success till today.
It also appeared to me that Atlanta was a solid representation that black-leadership in a thriving state, did not disrupt the livelihood of the white population of Atlanta. Electing a black mayor for the first time brought up fear from white-Atlanta of a down-turning economy, but only the opposite happened.


Then the last chapter of the book, which stirred the pot for a lot of reviews I've seen so far. The blacks that pass for white "When the brown-paper bag test wasn't enough". There was good and bad about the mentality behind those that passed, but intentionally these light-complected african-americans that passed, were in survival mode and adapted to the racism of the 19-20th century, you can almost feel sorry for them, as once they passed, there was essentially no turning back.
Cutting ties with their true families and creating an entirely different identity.
What this taught me was that not only passers from the working-class part-took in this phenomenon, Lawrence gave us accounts of passers from well-to-do backgrounds, it shocked me that even the most sheltered blacks still felt the need to pass.

I've become familiar with new phrases from this book, such as the;
- throw-back baby
- The old guard families
and so many more..


The Drawbacks from this book;
Lawrence made a habit of repeating lines throughout the book, such as reminding us who C.J Walker was multiple times in like 5 different chapters., this wasn't needed.
The accounts of several different communities in each cities seemed a bit longwinded and tedious, but may become useful to someone who would re-visit or revise the circles mentioned in the book, like the different social groups and chapters in each city.

Other than that, I would have given this book a 5star, but it took me a long time to finish this book, perhaps all memoirs are hard to digest from my experience .

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can see it in the beginning when a black doctor, lawyer, etc needed people to socialize, network with, etc. But what is so great about black people aping the worst characteristics of the white oligarchy? Light skin, straight hair, money,jockeying to get into exclusive clubs. It's so shallow and meaningless unless status and money are what you think is most important in this life.

I'm all for success. But the content of one's character is what counts in my opinion.

the book is tedious and not well written.

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently re-read this book and it still inspires me to be better. Black upper class professionals exist and they are taking over the world. Feb 2023.

Lawrence Otis Graham is an Ivy League graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School. Graham lived his life as Black Social Elite. Mansions, Cotillions, Jack and Jill, and summers in Martha’s Vineyard. He is one of the nation’s most prominent commenters on race and class.

Graham spent years researching the White elite and chronicling the differences between them and the middle class when he decided to turn his research to the Black community. This book is a result of years of meticulous study with in-depth interviews, historical documentation, and first person insight. The Black elite started before slavery in the United States. Old money was plentiful and made sure that families stayed together, were well educated, and lived in ‘high cotton’. Black elite families made sure they were members in the right groups – Jack and Jill, The Links, the Deltas and the AKAs, the Alphas and the Omegas. Everything about Black elite families spoke money – where they lived, the cars they drove, where they were educated, and the friends they kept. Interviews with the relatives of Madam CJ Walker speaks to the lives of the first Black self-made millionaire. Alonzo Herndon was the first Black millionaire in Atlanta. Graham reports that just because America does not discuss the lives of the Black elite it does not mean they did not exist.

[Chanel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This non-fiction book is a testament to the many advantages and achievements of our nation's top Black elite. It is extremely inspirational.

The ability to be born into families with such amazing role models, exposure to achievements within our culture, access to exclusive clubs, visiting exotic locations, maintenance to both financial and social networks and other resources has contributed to the extreme success within this group.

So what happens when your lineage does not include business owners, access to the right people, attendance to failing schools, daily access to destructive imagery and a level of concentrated poverty that is hard to escape?

As early as 1700 in America, there has been a creation of two different groups of classes with the black diaspora.

This book reminds me of "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson. Not only does class rule societal interactions but it does within Black America as well.

In "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, he dispels the myth of the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps." Because the information in this book clearly paints the real reality. One group has been provided with an abundance of resources to excel and the other has been left without much assistance at all.

[Aiesha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is good for an introductory course on Blackness and Class if paired with other works from varying viewpoints and throughout Black folks' time on this continent. I won't comment on the author specifically, except to say, "meh!"

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very interesting. Paper bag and ruler test. (The skin color and straight hair!) Becomes a name dropping roster. Didn't finish it.

[Raven Debose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a realistic account but still gave basic good info of what I have experienced

[Alexa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Similar to Negroland - but more gossipy and less thoughtful. A social register for African Americans around the nation.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black Privilege.

Lawrence Otis Graham's Our Kind of People is a deep-dive society chronicle of the African American upper crust, cotillions, debutante balls, yacht outings, private clubs, and the ritualized networks of The Links, Jack and Jill, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Alpha Phi Alpha, Omega Psi Phi and other black social institutions. Graham catalogs who married whom, who went to which prep school or Ivy, who belongs to which social club and who still carries the right last name. The result reads less like sociology and more like a 400‑page national society column.

Graham is a vigilant, detail-minded reporter of rituals and events. He renders a closed social world of Manhattan cotillions, Charleston debutante lists, private club circuits and Martha’s Vineyard summers, with clear eye for calendar, costume, and choreography. The book captures the practices that confer status: sororities, fraternities, social clubs, yacht weekends, and explains how lineage, schools, and marriages operate as currency in that world. Graham doesn’t flinch from the elitism within black high society, including the notorious “paper bag and ruler” standards for admittance that valorized light skin and straighter hair; exclusionary tests were imposed by well-heeled black Americans on other black Americans.

The book’s central beats of status, schooling, marriage, attendance lists, are repeated city after city until the narrative becomes monotonous. If you don’t already know the players, it’s hard to care who is marrying whom or which board they sat on. It often feels like a long, lovingly composed society column: name, pedigree, event, photograph-worthy anecdote. The people featured clearly relished being named; Graham’s later claims about subjects’ reticence sit oddly against the glow of so many proud mentions.

Graham catalogs degrees, positions, and social capital with gusto but performs almost no sustained assessment of impact. It's almost quaint reading this 25 years after publication as you recognize so many influential names from left/hard left Democratic politics (Eric Holder, Sheila Jackson Lee, Valerie Jarrett among other) but while there's an obvious collection of credentials (schools, degrees, positions), there's no assessment of IMPACT or success. It's easy to look back in hindsight and recognize that many of these people were simply not very good at their public-sector jobs (unless their job was to fail upwards into another board seat or NGO) and we see their social choreography, but there’s little rigorous accounting of what that accumulation of credentials actually translated into for the broader black community.

Graham reports philanthropic intentions and club-led initiatives, but he stops short of measuring outcomes. We’re left asking whether all this social capital produced structural gains or mainly served ego and networking (SPOILER: It's ego and networking).

The “old guard” repeatedly resists newcomers and new money. The very groups that profess interest in improving Black life also police entry and preserve exclusivity. That tension (charitable rhetoric versus social gatekeeping) is the book’s most delicious and damning irony. Read superficially, the narrative’s racial dimension recedes. Replace the cast with white gentry and the story remains the same: a cloistered social ecosystem obsessed with pedigree and parties. The book unintentionally makes the point that this social world is so far removed from the lived experience of most Americans regardless of race that the racial angle becomes an almost tertiary detail. Listening to complaints of discrimination delivered between summer runs to Martha’s Vineyard feels, as Graham records it, like dissonance on stilts.

Our Kind of People is consistently interesting as ethnography of a tiny, insulated world; it’s vivid on rituals and ruthless about pedigree. But as a sustained work of social analysis, it is wanting. The luxuriant roll call of names, schools, yachts, and debutante balls is fascinating only to the degree you care about the people listed. Beyond the sparkle, the book is a long society column: glitzy, glamorous, and utterly fucking dull. For readers who like insider gossip with a sociological garnish, Graham delivers. For anyone hoping for hard appraisal of influence, impact, or moral accounting, the book is frustratingly shallow.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was great until I realized that many of the people the author talked about were snobs. I love the fact that children were exposed to many of the finer things in life but not at the expense of growing up and looking down on others who did not have that same privilege.

[Octavia · Rating 2 out of 5]

certainly well written... sad state is that colorism still exists... I am with Benilde Little when she wrote... "where are the regular black people";)

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is most interesting if you know of the organizations and some of the names in the communities where these individuals reside. It is a book regarding networking in African-American community that starts at an early age.

Years ago, I read a book, more or less, along the same theme by Stephen Birmingham titled "Certain People: America's Black Elite." It was also a take on the black upper class across the United States.

"Our Kind of People" is Graham's take on what black scholars called the talented 10th of the black community. This 10th was made of the educators, doctors, lawyers and business people who were able to provide services to their fellow marginalized African Americans. There were some caveats within inclusion of the 10th.

These caveats are something that African Americans still have trouble coming to grips with --- hue and hair texture. The last chapter of the book sadly states it all as is told by a woman whose darker end of the family gene pool grabbed her.

I said that the book was about networking. One of the first networks, of course, is where you lived, with whom you had social relationships and each city had their own cultural or educational elite. For children, it started with memberships in organizations as the Jack & Jill club. This club was open to the children of professional people so that they could meet other children whose parents were strivers. It also meant that these children had to attend the correct primary schools, even if that meant leaving their communities, especially in the segregated South, for boarding schools in the Northern states. After primary school, it was the correct HBCU or if you could get accepted, a prestigious Ivy League institution, much as it is today. Then of course, it was the professions.

It strange to read the names of some of my neighbors. I knew that they were socialites and highly educated. I knew that their children where in Jack & Jill. Even though my community was small, you still knew whose parents' were professionals and you did not see their children on the weekends because they were occupied elsewhere. In the summer, these children went to a Camp Atwater, in MA,
which many children parents, including my own, could not afford to send them. I am still not sure, since my parents were not professionals, if my sister, brothers and I would have been accepted had they made application.

The colleges were somewhat the same. When I matriculated at Howard University, I ran into some of the same people from growing up and more of these children of socialites from acrosss the country. An example of this are the Wheelers and Evans of Chicago, IL; the Lewis undertaker family of Memphis; Rhoulacs of Philadelphia.

They, of course, all knew each other from camp or Jack & Jill. The author recounts staying in contact with many of these lifelong friends even though he went to Princeton, as did one of my neighbors. While in college there were the fraternities and sororities that many of the children of the elite were expected to pledge. These groups also were a form of networking for those who wished to partake in rituals that are required to join them. These line sisters and brothers stayed in contact for the rest of their lives. I had mentioned hue as being one the caveats in black social hierarchy. There were times at Howard University that I wondered whether hue came into play with sorority membership. I did not notice it with the men of fraternity that I encountered.


There were the adult social groups for women, it was the Links, the Girl Friends and Smart Set, which prided themselves on raising money for scholarships. For men, there was the Boulé, NMA (National Medical Association -- not sure that blacks were allowed in the AMA when it was formed).

Presenting young women to polite black society was also important. The offspring of these elites often married each other. It was all an attempt to conform to the larger white society and stay one step ahead of their fellow black brethren. Family history was important. If you did not know who the black movers and shakers in each community, then you seemed to be out of social luck. Athletes and entertainers were not included in the black elite, perhaps because these crafts and skills did not necessarily require an education.

It is an interesting read of part black life that contributed much to the black community but is now being overshadowed by actors, athletes and internet "stars".

[Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lawrence Otis Graham crafts, a book... Not a particularly bad book per say but... His narration comes off as arrogant or narcissistic, and in general a bit dickish. He has this habit of mentioning that he's attracted to most if not all of the young women he interviews. Another bad habit is his repetition, he hits the same beats and perspectives at least twice per chapter, every chapter, which might've been fine if the perspective wasn't so muddled and personally offensive at times. Every once in awhile he'll bring up some bigoted section of the upper crusts views that in some ways are hard to decipher if he is the one that believes that or the faction of whatever group he's talking about at the time. The book is also incredibly dated, it misses the new generation of black celebrities, tokenism, the black middle class, and new civil rights movements like black lives matters and how the upper crust would react to that. In addition other little details don't line up with the image presented, parts of his childhood recollections and his later in life conversations feel less humanlike and more like a protagonist of a fiction work going about his heroic crusade to... Stay rich? But it isn't just the main character that doesn't quite fit, the offhand remarks about Charity donations feels like last minute additions to no come off as complete assess, but instead they're kind of plot holes in that if significant donations from wealthy black people were being made to the poorer communities the poorer communities really should be improving instead of declining rapidly like they are now, similar stories should be popping up around civil rights movements where black political leaders point to wealthy blacks as role models and targets to aim for, a representation of what is possible, but instead the black elite's names are left off of history, unmentioned. This problem especially becomes apparent when the author talks about Malcolm Ex's widow and daughter or how he's really good at getting along with black and white people. This in particular gets my goat because I don't really think he's black. Technically he's definitely black, his genetic lineage proves it, but he really doesn't deserve to call himself black. He grew up completely surrounded with middle class white kids, the only black kids he really associated with were black kids from his exact same situation, he was then funneled through a system designed to make him as white as possible through incentives, stigma, and enforcement by emulation instead of actual intermingling. At no point did he really reconnect with the majority of his race or the traditions our modern traditions were born from. Instead he's divided from the world, in almost every way he's rich and white, he only doesn't see himself that way because the other rich white people can only see him as black. I went through almost the same thing growing up in the upper middle class being mixed black and white, I came from the same neighborhoods, had almost identical living situations was barely more than a shade or two darker than them in the winter and had no interest in sports or rap, but every time I meet someone who is for all intents or purposes like me in upbringing and personality the first question I'll be asked with depressing certainty is "what's your favorite sport/team". Then when I say I have no interest in sport they'll give up, they'l just shut down any attempt to get to know me from there. But those aren't the worst parts, the really annoying people keep telling everyone around them I'm their friend, at almost any point someone new shows up the first or second thing they'll bring up is how I'm their friend, which I'll deny, then they'll both laugh like it's a great joke, I'll insist and they'll laugh until I give up, because to them it's a bit part from a thing that pretends to be human. Sometimes these people can't actually emphatically connect to me, I could tell them the most tragic sob story of my life and all I get is one long blank. But that still doesn't suck like the way the people that know me handle this, the whit kids who know me say I'm white or will act like they didn't hear me because they're scared to say I'm black, the other black and mixed kids who grew up in the same situation and environment's as me make a show of being black to me, we perform being black because people don't want to talk to us unless were stereotypes, and neither of us can be honest that it's just a show, then my poorer black relatives just assume I'm black but light skinned, the whole being part white thing doesn't even occur to them, or my black aunt, uncle, grandparents, and mother who have lived so much of their lives in suburban white neighborhoods we've found it routine to explain we're of the black race but not the black culture, that we're more or less black soles in white bodies, and all of that just to get called a N@#$%r in the boy's locker room. Then Lawrence Otis Graham comes along whose even less black then you and claims he's full black. Not just full black, but a part of a "superior" black upper class exclusive to a kind of people that's so far removed from the rest of what is black it might as well be a minstrel show in full black face for being completely cartoonish. So in a lot of ways this book was completely insufferable for how up his own ass he is with how much detail and importance he fills out the groups and sub-groups within groups split by age and color and family history and college and sex and geography, it feels a little like a joke. But at least he got history, In school black people were exactly three things, tribal, slave, civil rights, and the tribal Africans were faceless savages in huts other savages would tie up in ropes and sell to shiny white explorers with big glorious guns, the slaves were a handful of paintings and photos of sad looking black people whining about how tough life was until they were forgotten to revel in the bloodiness of the civil war, and all that leaves is Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks to represent civil rights, usually in some kind of segue to how amazing Gandhi was. Occasionally we get something more in the form of a James Brown or Selma Biopic, but most of the time it's white imitation rappers, Ryan Gosling "saving" Jazz, and generally people getting shot by police for being black and then black athletes getting threatened for not being hunky dory with there people getting shot. So yeah, great to know there is a black upper class that's mostly f@#$%ed in the head, but you know what would have been better, a good reason to care about literally any of it.