January 21–28, 1999

books

Black and Blue-Blooded

A look at the oppressed and well-to-do.

by Cindy Fuchs

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

by Lawrence Otis Graham, HarperCollins, 416 p., $25

Even at age six, I knew the importance of class distinctions within my black world," writes Lawrence Otis Graham in Our Kind of People. "I already knew the importance of achieving a better shade of black." The author recalls his quiet obeyance of his great-grandmother's command to stay in the "safety of the shade," while watching his older brother defiantly "thrusting his bare brown chest and oval face into the ninety-degree July sun."

Graham uses this small incident to introduce the crucial connections between race and class within the American black elite, and the perspective from which he undertakes his examination of the black elite class, which might be described as orderly, earnest and exceedingly polite. Best known for his 1995 New York magazine exposé of racism at a Greenwich, CT, country club, and a follow-up collection of essays on white racism, Graham has a new, more elusive target in this book: intraracial and intraclass hierarchies, and the attendant elitism and resentment.

He brings his own experiences to bear on his informal study. Graham describes himself as coming up with "one foot inside and one foot outside the group," learning early that "politeness reigned supreme." His family lived in New York City. He and his brother attended private schools, summered in Sag Harbor and Martha's Vineyard, participated in the proper religious activities and requisite social organizations. Early on, he learned the rules of compliance. His career is filled with a laundry list of impressive accomplishments as a lawyer, journalist, teacher of African-American studies and author of 12 books.

No doubt it behooves Graham to be respectful of his subject matter and subjects: Insiders don't talk to outsiders. And so, the author conducts his interviews from a difficult position, part inside and part outside. At times, the book is too polite. Much of it is comprised of lists: the famous members of organizations like the Links and the Boule (women's and men's groups, respectively); good neighborhoods in particular cities (Detroit, Atlanta, New York); preferred or common occupations (funeral homes, insurance companies); and favored universities (Morehouse, Spelman, Howard). And too often, Graham's insights are reserved for single paragraphs at the end of chapters (with titles like "The Right Fraternities and Sororities," "Vacation Spots for the Elite" or "Black Elite in Memphis").

Graham's shrewdest appraisals come during recounted conversations, between the author and upper-crusters, named and unnamed. (No surprise, the unnamed offer the most cutting remarks, say, concerning Clarence Thomas' marriage to a "low-class white woman from God knows where.") Some interviewees reveal—even revel in—their prejudices in ways that require no interpretation, and Graham does well to let them do their own work. The chapter on passing, a topic that could conceivably lay bare much of the ambivalence, resistance and confusion within the upper class, is left until the end of the book and given short shrift.

Graham's own ambivalence is integral to the book. He values the upper class' sense of tradition and charity, but also critiques its insularity and competitiveness. He points out but doesn't contextualize or complicate the class' "schizophrenic" color standards, as when the old guard disapproves of interracial marriages but favors the archaic "brown paper bag & ruler" test for acceptable appearance (skin lighter than a paper bag and straight hair). Graham allows that he internalized such standards when, at age 26, he had his nose "surgically altered" to fit "the aesthetic biases that many among the black elite hold so dear."

The book is most affecting when the author pushes these kinds of questions, not so much to answers, but to the uncomfortable, self-scrutinizing positions that might be produced by asking them.

Lawrence Otis Graham will read on Wed., Jan. 27, 7 p.m., at Barnes & Noble, 1805 Walnut St., 215-665-0716.