Lawrence Otis Graham, Best Selling Author of Our Kind of People, dies at 58

[Cadillac]

Dr Amos N Wilson and John Henrik Clarke can break it down way better than I ever could





I don't wanna derail Graham's memorial thread. That's why I won't engage with you One Drop Rule brehs

Are you serious with this rn, and no you shouldnt engage your not even ADOS or even live in america. So mind ya business.

 

[invalid]

I think it was Professor Griff or someone else back in the day who claimed the Boule were basically the Prince Hall Freemasons that did the dirty work of the Illuminati to control the Black population. It just went on from there...

Bobby Hemmitt also did a lot of work that was destructive to the image of the Boule.

 

[EBK String]

Bobby Hemmitt also did a lot of work that was destructive to the image of the Boule.

 

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

dude ass a full on weirdo

way too obsessed about the personal life of comedians, especially if they have a podcast

Look n the Corey Holcombe thread as an example

This is a clown post about a man whose body isn't even cold yet.
None of what you wrote is a reveal, and LOG was quite candid about all aspects of that group. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
In what world does Marcus Garvey's name even come up in a thread about a recently deceased attorney/writer?

As @boy has pointed out multiple times, Graham's views do not represent those of every member of that social circle. Not anymore than your views speak for any group that you identify as.
Graham was just the literary public face of his social circle. Others from those groups have publicly called him out over the years for various public comments.

 

[CoryMack]

This is the book excerpt that put Lawrence Otis Graham on the media map.

I’ve been familiar with this man for over 15-20 years now. My opinion is for all his accomplishments he was still in a type of hell of his own making.

His burning desire to be accepted into white social society influenced everything he did. Reminds me of a close relative of mine. When I look at the picture of his family and see his sons forced into those ridiculous hair helmets their father wore, when I see the video explaining why he won’t let his children wear certain normal clothes, all the rules he had about not being out after dark, not walking with anything in your hands after dusk, crossing to the other side of the street if whites are approaching to make them feel secure, I feel sorry for that man and even more for his children. I can only imagine the humiliations they’ve had to endure out in public watching their accomplished father shuffle and kowtow to the most regular of white people.

It’s gonna be rough on those kids for awhile trying to readjust to being normal and finding their way in the world as Black people without their late father’s emotional hangups and fears holding them back.

 

[Originalman]

This is a clown post about a man whose body isn't even cold yet.
None of what you wrote is a reveal, and LOG was quite candid about all aspects of that group. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
In what world does Marcus Garvey's name even come up in a thread about a recently deceased attorney/writer?

As @boy has pointed out multiple times, Graham's views do not represent those of every member of that social circle. Not anymore than your views speak for any group that you identify as.
Graham was just the literary public face of his social circle. Others from those groups have publicly called him out over the years for various public comments.

This is true and folks even said Graham was new money and didn't come from old money like they did. Graham was more so bougie than high class.

Also brotha I never had an issue with his book..when reading it growing up. It was jist a peak into this world. But as you said it was a small peak with certain folks from grahams circle. But it was always refreshing I felt because often books that dealt with black folks talked about the poor, struggling, living in the ghetto, single parents or blue color working black class.

We never really had stories on the "upper high class population". Yes we see tyler perry shows and books on this class now. But 30 years ago this class of black folks was pretty much never talked about even though they existed.

 

[Originalman]

No, it isn't.

You're a couple of generations too late with your "revelations," colorism is no longer predominant in Sigma Pi Phi, Jack & Jill, the Divine 9, the Girlfriends/Links, etc.

Please don't pretend you know anything about this when you don't, Our Kind of People is *at least* 30 years out of date - as much as I love the book.

And when have I ever talked shyt about "real revolutionaries?"

Not sure why people say this online. Folks acting like all black frats/sororities/organizations are filled with light brights and exoticals. This just online ignorance that folks kick cause they see some youtube clown say this.

Its like how kats on here will say the prince hall masons all over the country are illuminati and run the black class in every city. I be like what the hell.

So the run down prince hall mason lodges I knew people attended in Mississippi were part of the illuminati. Them lodges where most them kats were dudes working at the furniture store or working in the chicken plant. Where the head lodge member was a poor old 65 year old part time preacher with a gold tooth and a jeri curl.

So them folks part of illuminate and running the black communities in Mississippi...


Dudes online say the darndest things they just like children...

 

[get these nets]

I’ve been familiar with this man for over 15-20 years now. My opinion is for all his accomplishments he was still in a type of hell of his own making.

His burning desire to be accepted into white social society influenced everything he did. Reminds me of a close relative of mine. When I look at the picture of his family and see his sons forced into those ridiculous hair helmets their father wore, when I see the video explaining why he won’t let his children wear certain normal clothes, all the rules he had about not being out after dark, not walking with anything in your hands after dusk, crossing to the other side of the street if whites are approaching to make them feel secure, I feel sorry for that man and even more for his children. I can only imagine the humiliations they’ve had to endure out in public watching their accomplished father shuffle and kowtow to the most regular of white people.

It’s gonna be rough on those kids for awhile trying to readjust to being normal and finding their way in the world as Black people without their late father’s emotional hangups and fears holding them back.

The thing is that Black "upper class" folks have had to be concerned with their safety in those white dominated spaces for over a century. The fear is real.
We discuss the terrorist attacks/riots caused by white resentment of African American success often here, most notably the violence and murder in Tulsa, OK in 1921.
Several documented cases of wealthy Blacks having had their homes firebombed by cowards who resented their success.

We can't discuss Black Wall Street, and then imagine that affluent Blacks don't have concern/fear about their safety in these 95+% white spaces in the modern era.

 

[EBK String]

Black people who try to be accepted by cacs are playing a game they will never win.

 

[DrBanneker]

Black people who try to be accepted by cacs are playing a game they will never win.

I agree, but I think in larger context it isn't only bougie Blacks that have done this. We have our own problems but there are parallels.

Upper class Western European Jews in the 19th and early 20th century would often get their children baptized, sneer at lower class (usually East European) Jews, avoid Zionism like the plague, and tried to tell their children not to practice "Oriental" cultural traits frowned on by White society. Of course the Holocaust put an end to all that.

 

[Apollo Creed]

Bobby Hemmitt also did a lot of work that was destructive to the image of the Boule.

most of the people who make these orgs something 'spooky' tend to lack university education I notice or didn't come through many black institutions (i.e. predominantly black public school not in the 'hood', black church, etc).

 

[CoryMack]

The thing is that Black "upper class" folks have had to be concerned with their safety in those white dominated spaces for over a century. The fear is real.
We discuss the terrorist attacks/riots caused by white resentment of African American success often here, most notably the violence and murder in Tulsa, OK in 1921.
Several documented cases of wealthy Blacks having had their homes firebombed by cowards who resented their success.

We can't discuss Black Wall Street, and then imagine that affluent Blacks don't have concern/fear about their safety in these 95+% white spaces in the modern era.

I grew up in an area like that. Not quite that high up in terms of wealth, but an area considered upper middle class, and predominately white just the same. The close relative I was talking about was my own father. You have certain issues to deal with, no doubt about that, but I believe that Brother took things to an unnecessary extreme. Security wasn't Graham's issue as much as doing everything he could to try and make white people comfortable in his presence. That's a no-win battle, and I hate a dude as smart as that wasted as much of his life in that direction as he obviously did.

 

[DaRealness]

Damn, this came out the blue. I was just listening to his debate with Umar the other day. I didn't much about him or the 'boule' beforehand but this is a shock that he passed just days after.

 

[DrBanneker]

the furniture store or working in the chicken plant.

It was a front. They just didn't want you to ask to come to the annual George Soros fish fry.

 

[get these nets]

I grew up in an area like that. Not quite that high up in terms of wealth, but an area considered upper middle class, and predominately just the same. The close relative I was talking about was my own father. You have certain issues to deal with, no doubt about that, but I believe that Brother took things to an unnecessary extreme. Security wasn't Graham's issue as much as doing everything he could to try and make white people comfortable in his presence. That's a no-win battle, and I hate a dude as smart as that wasted as much of his life in that direction as he obviously did.

There's something to be said about being comfortable in your own skin. I'm in agreement with you about that. Graham pretty much admits that he takes pains to project the image that he wants to be perceived as to whites AND to the Black circles that he orbited.

I think as Black Men, perception is something that we come face to face with all the time. In a way that other men never have to think about. In terms of the old money white world he moved around in, I believe his actions were meant to show them that they didn't have anything on him. That there was no social,academic, or professional D measuring contest that they would win.
That was how he moved, and what he felt he had to do to function in that world. Other Black people can function and thrive in that world without doing that.