BOOK REVI O UR KIND OF PEOPLE:
BOOK REVIEW
INSIDE AMERICAS BLACK UPPER CLASS By Lawrence Otis G r a n a m (HarperCollins PuUiskers) I S B N 0 - 0 6 - 0 1 8 3 5 2 - 7 Reviewed By Brother Harry B. Dunbar
his book is an anecdotal study of upper class AfricanAmericans in several U.S. cities where cohort groups of such people have existed since the 19th century. Its author is himself a member of the black upper class. He has thus been able to penetrate this group through his considerable contacts, including relatives and others, across the country. The more than six years that he gave to writing the book, and the more than 300 persons that he interviewed and or consulted, lend credibility to his work. Moreover, it seems to this reviewer that the old maxim that says that you know a person by knowing who his or her friends are is applicable in this context. The black upper class is a self-defined group. This is one of the things that distinguishes Graham's technique from that used by the late E. Franklin Frazier in his 1957 book Black Bourgeoisie. Frazier who quite obviously did not see himself as a member of the class of people he was studying, adapted sociological techniques to the study of people that were alien to his own spirit. Graham, on the other hand, has taken a group to which he has an affinity and let its members define themselves. The result is not just a good read, but a fascinating one. Several criteria, in varying degrees, seem to figure in determining who is, and is not, in the black upper class. Wealth, type of home, education, skin color, lineage, intelligence, social skills, presentability of spouse and offspring, self confidence, and profession are among them. Additionally, membership in certain social and fraternal organizations and church denominations are de rigueur in being selected for membership in the black upper class. Some of these organizations were founded in the early 1900s. (Graham dates the founding of Sigma Pi Phi at 1906. Dr. Hobart Jarrett's history of the organization sets the year at 1904.) Length of time for which a prospect's forbears have been in the upper middle class is also a consideration. The evidence suggests, however, that there is flexibility exercised in the application of each of these criteria around the country. Moreover, it seems clear that only those who are said to be members by the local arbiters of the subject are indeed members.
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85,b ANNIVERSARY EDITION
The names that surface in this book constitute a virtual registry of the black upper class from its inception to current times. Speaking of names, Graham mentions a 'Hewart' Guinier, which we believe intends to connote the late Ewart Guinier. (Guinier was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.) Finally, it is quite obvious that one does not seek admission to the black upper class, one is included, or one is not. As membership in social and fraternal organizations is one of the criteria which is emphasized in Our Kind of People, readers of The Sphinx™ will be particularly interested in the role which Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. enjoys in the election of prospects into this aristocracy of race and culture. First, we are told that the membership of this Fraternity, founded at Cornell in 1906, is "a veritable who's who in black America..." Moreover, many among those who Graham characterizes as the old-guard black elite "...would argue that only three of the fraternities—the Alphas, the Kappas, and the Omegas—actually fit the "socieofile." His own father-in-law who was initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha in 1947 told him that an Alpha man is"... the nice guy that everyone wants his sister to date." Graham, in a poignant passage regrets that his Princeton experience precluded his becoming a member of a fraternity, African-American or otherwise. He tells us that "I have long felt alien to—and envious of—the experience that my friends received at other colleges." What he felt that he missed was the experience of being inducted as a college student into an AfricanAmerican, Greek-letter organization. It is clear that he would have been interested in admission to Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, which he characterizes as the best of them all. Juxtaposing Graham's situation here with that of Cornel West, his Harvard faculty colleague, makes for an interesting comparison. West attended Harvard, taking his BA in 1973. However, he did not avail himself of the opportunity to join Sigma Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity while he was a Harvard student, as many have done since 1915. West became a member of the Fraternity after teaching at Princeton.