Black GQ Books: Our Kind of People - Lawrence Otis Graham

The book starts with a controversial epigraph, a distillation of the sentiments of the black elite regarding their own:

Bryant Gumbel is, but Bill Cosby isn’t. Lena Horne is, but Whitney Houston isn’t. Andrew Young is, but Jesse Jackson isn’t. And neither is Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Clarence Thomas, or Quincy Jones. And, even though both of them try extremely hard, neither Diana Ross nor Robin Givens will ever be.

It was 10 years ago that Lawrence Otis Graham's "Our Kind of People" hit book stands.Our Kind of People presents a telling view of blacks in settings other than those featured on the evening news. Instead of the standard depictions and glamorized scenes, it peers into the privileged lives of over three hundred successful members of America's black upper class in cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, New York, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. Graham not only salutes the many accomplishments of this class, but acknowledges their flaws as well. In the first chapter of the book he describes the "brown paper bag and ruler test" that determined who belonged in the black elite and who did not. Money alone did not guarantee one a spot in this exclusive club. Unfortunately, it is unclear from Graham's tone how he feels about this distinction, perhaps because, as he likes to remind the reader, he himself "passes."

Our Kind of People serves as a kind of Baedeker's guide to the lives and follies of the black elite, listing and describing the schools they attend (Howard, Morehouse, and Spelman, historically, the Ivy-league today), the places they vacation (Martha's Vineyard or Sag Harbour), and the organizations to which they belong (the Boule and/or the Guardsmen for men, the Links and Girlfriends for the women).

Our Kind of People is a lively, generally accurate, and informative account of the black elite. One only wishes Graham had delved a little more into the dissonance between the group's ideals and those of the larger African American community to which it belongs, a community which fought for so long against all forms of invidious exclusion.

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