Very informative but poorly written. I became tired of reading the words 'elite' and 'credentials'.

Pretentious and long af, yet detailed and well-explained (even tho I was privy to some) as the author traverses the selective member clubs to the hidden, snooty ass realms of the name dropping, degree stacking, title having, approval seeking, shoulder rubbing, "it" club craving, new residential address eyeing (non-entertainment) Black American upper class.

The layer that is not unveiled in this book is how their legacy organizations play a part in running interference in the progress of Black Americans "underneath" them to control what's accessible and make sure their own movability is with ease. Can't give everything away, right?

"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 .

Who are these people?

I originally read this book in physical form over a decade ago. It made an impression on me due to the fact that I found out that a so called black elite existed. However, I found out why many people were not aware of them. Due to this groups relative small size, fragmentation, lack of power and influence compared to the white elite, and its hatred of the much larger Black population, who they avoid as much as humanly possible. The majority of this group are the proud descendents of the half breed children of white slave owners and their female Black slaves. Many of these people were treated better by their masters due to their lighter skin and they came to believe that they were truly superior to real Black people. After slavery ended, there was a movement by certain white elites to educate some of the freed men. They preferred the half breeds because they would be used as a buffer class between the whites and the real Black population. The so called hbcu's were created, funded and controlled by whites for this population. When segregation became law, all people of Black ancestry, no matter their complexion, went straight to the ghetto. However, most if not all of the so called black elite disliked being in close proximity to real Black people. As a result, this clique formed their own exclusive organizations within the segregated Black community. After the ending of legal segregation with the passage of civil rights, the black elite fled to the suburbs, were they remain in limbo to this day. The main thing that I got from this book is that this clique days are numbered. For all of their education, the black elite have far less wealth, property and power than the white elite that they slavishly imitate. Also, the majority of this population live in majority white areas. There are no cities where the black elite are the majority. Finally, the push to Brazilianize Black Americans, will do them in the end. After all, the black elite has always disliked real Black people and desired to be in close proximity to whites. Race mixing will finish the job. No loss.

The first part of this book was a fairly interesting, if sometimes elitist, description of the Black upper class from the view of an insider. However, the majority of the length of the book consisted of very detailed descriptions of important families in various US metro areas, which became very boring and repetitive quite quickly: while I was interested in some of them, it felt like these chapters were more about the social politics among specific families who are notable only because they're "the right families" in various cities and it was hard to care about a lot of it.

This book came as such a drag to me. Too long, dropping names I frankly didn't care about. But it was good to see how Blacks have always survived and strive in a country that have been extremely racist towards them.

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.

SAY OUR KIND OF PEOPLES UPPER CLASS DOWN CLASS WHEN YOU ARE DONE SPELLING THE 5. LETTER. WORD CLASS. HEYY WE ARE ALL CLASSY. BORN WITH CLASS. EITHER WAY YOU LOOK AT IT. WE ALL GOT CLASS MY ENTIRE PEOPLE S HAVE CLASS

speechless

Our Kind of People:Inside America's Black Upper Class
I really enjoyed reading this particular book because a lot of historical information was provided that is not often shared among African Americans properly. This book clears up a lot of misconceptions and also provides some interesting food for thought.

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.

Audiobook - I finished this book on the day James Earl Jones died. RIP, sir. Before this book, I read a book about 2 black women in the 1950s and the author referenced this book in the author's notes. I can't believe I listened 19.5 hours of content, but I guess it was pretty interesting to me - someone who is clearly not the intended audience and I honestly recognized less than 10 names. Not since an in-depth Civil War book have I been so inundated with names that I'll never remember.

I listened to 11 hours of the book on a Saturday and thought maybe I'd call it quits, but I'm a military wife and we've lived in Miami, Baltimore, Memphis and PG Cty (where we bought a house online, by pictures and video walkthrough and unknowingly moved into an ALL black neighborhood, which was super awkward for me starting out, but if you're wondering how that turned out... it was amazing! I fell in love with my home and neighborhood and I never wanted to leave and cried when we sold it to move on to Mobile.) So listening to the stories about DC, NY, MD, TN, New Orleans ... to me, the book was only getting better as you moved from city to city. I really didn't want to miss anything and sticking around for 'passing' was fascinating and WAAAY worth it.