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Member of the Club

Reflections on Life in a Racially Polarized World

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

"In Member of the Club. [Graham writes of] heartbreaking ironies and contradictions, indignities and betrayals in the life of an upper-class black man." —Philadelphia Inquirer

Informed and driven by his experience as an upper-middle-class African American man who lives and works in a predominately white environment, provocative author Lawrence Otis Graham offers a unique perspective on the subject of race. An uncompromising work that will challenge the mindset of every reader, Member of the Club is a searching book of essays ranging from examining life as a black Princetonian and corporate lawyer to exploring life as a black busboy at an all white country-club. From New York Magazine cover stories Invisible Man and Harlem on My Mind to such new essays as "I Never Dated a White Girl" and "My Dinner with Mister Charlie: A Black Man's Undercover Guide to Dining with Dignity at Ten Top New York Restaurants," Graham challenges racial prejudice among white Americans while demanding greater accountability and self-determination from his peers in black America.

"Lawrence Graham surely knows about the pressures of being beholden to two very different groups." —Los Angeles Times

Lawrence Otis Graham is a popular commentator on race and ethnicity. The author of ten other books, his work has appeared in New York magazine, the New York Times and The Best American Essays.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 2, 1995
      Graham, a black corporate lawyer and author (The Best Companies for Minorities), is best known for a New York magazine cover story reporting the casual racism he experienced while working undercover at a Greenwich, Conn., country club. While that article is being inflated into a film, this miscellany works better in miniature. There is an interesting report on a journey through Harlem ``rich and poor'' and a far-too-long catalogue of Graham's treatment while dining at 10 upscale New York City restaurants. Better are reflective essays like the one on the author's struggle to live an integrated life as an undergraduate at Princeton, where he claims to have been rejected by both blacks and whites. Graham's analysis of the roles black professionals play in corporate America (the informant, the rubber stamp, etc.) is savvy. But there's some tension in this collection, if not sheer inconsistency: for instance, Graham's racial solidarity argument against interracial marriage is deflated by his touchy defense of his own nose job. His critique of black civil rights leadership is turgid, and his proposal that ``bias neutralizing'' can supplant affirmative action is undeveloped. $75,000 ad/promo; author tour.

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  • English

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