| If you don't live in an area with a large | | | | grandmother's;attraction to Howard makes more |
| concentration of African Americans, you might be | | | | sense. She was emulating the Black upper class of |
| surprised at the level of diversity within the Black | | | | her day. Howard was and remains a source of |
| community. Southern Blacks, northeastern Blacks, | | | | great pride for African Americans. If your family |
| west coast Blacks, lower class Blacks, middle | | | | attended a school like Howard or Morehouse for |
| class, upper class Blacks. Social conservatives. | | | | generations, you could jockey your family into |
| Liberals. Athiests. Agnostics. This fact of intraracial | | | | abetter position within the Black caste system. |
| diversity gets overlooked far too often in | | | | I remember having similar experiences with my |
| discussions of race. Recently, I finished reading | | | | mother when subjects like Jack and Jill, or the |
| Lawrence Otis Graham's mildly controversial, "Our | | | | Links came up; the hand wringing, overwrought |
| Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper | | | | attention to dress, behavior, and language that |
| Class," which comprehensively details the history | | | | were an issue before visiting some of our friends, |
| and character of upper class African Americans | | | | but mysteriously not all. The elation my mother |
| throughout the United States. Graham describes | | | | showed when she felt she had been included in |
| the social organizations, secondary schools, | | | | some ritual of the Black upper class or when she |
| colleges, fraternities, vacation spots, and cities | | | | coyly dropped the name of an exclusive school |
| that the Black upper class favor. The opening lines | | | | her own children attended thereby, ostensibly, |
| of "Our Kind of People" establish the nature of the | | | | identifying herself as a member of the class. This |
| beast: | | | | left me perplexed as a child. Why do you care |
| Bryant Gumbel is, but Bill Cosby isn't... | | | | what I wear to Johnny's house but not Rumal's? |
| Andrew Young is, but Jesse Jackson isn't...neither | | | | Why do you even want me to be friends with |
| is Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Clarence Thomas, | | | | Johnny? Johnny's a jerk. Why do you talk "White" |
| or Quincy Jones. | | | | around Johnny's parents but you get all ghetto |
| And even though both of them try extremely | | | | around Rumal's parents? We're all Black, right? |
| hard, neither Diana Ross nor Robin Givens will | | | | Well, yeah, sort of. |
| ever be. | | | | All that said, I don't really harbor animosity toward |
| Reading Graham's work brought back hazy | | | | the Black upper class anymore than you hold |
| memories of my mother and grandmother and | | | | animosity for a cousin who voted for Bush or an |
| the, what I thought at the time, strange | | | | uncle who wears Crocs. My main beef is simply |
| responses they gave to certain institutions, | | | | that my contemporaries of that class are as |
| people, and behavior. Howard University was, to | | | | Lawrence Otis Graham describes them, "always |
| my light-skinned grandmother, the epitome of | | | | rather bland and 'safe,' with little interest in testing |
| higher education. So transfixed was my | | | | the authenticity of [my] blackness." I'm certainly |
| grandmother by Howard that she sent my uncle, | | | | not angry at anyone for their success. As for the |
| a blue chip football prospect, there to establish his | | | | semi-secret organizations that characterize the |
| football career. She pushed Howard despite | | | | Black elite: the Links, Jack and Jill, Sigma Pi Phi, |
| interest from UCLA, USC, and several other big | | | | they do contribute to the Black community, |
| name college football programs. As a young adult, | | | | primarily through fund raising for organizations like |
| this astonished me. Howard? You want to send | | | | the United Negro College Fund. But with all the ski |
| your kid to play football at Howard? Wouldn't you | | | | trips, cotillions, black-tie events, networking |
| rather send him somewhere with better facilities | | | | activites, yachting parties, and such, while literacy |
| and coaches? The choice seemed even more | | | | rates, graduation rates, HIV/AIDS, and |
| absurd to me after my mother explained that my | | | | out-of-wedlock child birth for lower-income Blacks |
| uncle's football career ended with a severe knee | | | | remain problematic; what is the point? What's the |
| injury on Howard's practice field. But after reading | | | | point of organizing high class Blacks for parties |
| more about the Black upper class and their | | | | while the rest of the community suffers? What's |
| affinity for certain Black colleges like Howard, | | | | that all about? |
| Spellman, and Morehouse, my | | | | |