Sidenote : Even Steadman’s family frowned upon Oprah and her non elite family .

Okay this book is refreshing and bold so far. However it did make me think of their ignorance to the fact with all the money and education the elite seem to still have, they still seem to hold on to some of “masters” ways when in come to skin color of there own race. It’s like the “House Negro, Field Negro syndrome”. These educated people still look at color like, I’m lighter than you so I am better than you they consider themselves to be so separated from the rest of the world that they separate themselves within their own groups when it came to color and features.

This book however make you so proud to know that there are black people out there that have made it and continue to make it through Family, Education Love and friendships that hold true may it be fake or sincere, because I’m sure in circles like this you can’t help but have a healthy dose of competition. I want the best for my family in fact I wish I had and everyday group of hard working friends who has a strong education value people who travel and dine and just have great conversation with a place where my son can play with children who have parents with some sort of ambition and value…. Please do not get me wrong I know these people exists, unfortunately in the Bronx where I am from, I look out in the park and all I see is young kids who have kids profanity raining out of there mouth as their babies are draped with over sized clothing (name brand of course) and the touch of bling to finish it of. No this is not an exaggeration no this is everyday life of our minority kids. No I do not live in the projects I actually own a Co-op here, and we have single parents and people who were able to live in my community through special housing programs they leave the projects yet that mentality stick with them. We need mentors we are sinking in our own ignorance. The boys who hold up the walls has they stand in front of the deli’s contributing nothing or the kids who prefer to hang out in front of the teen center instead of actually going in to learn something. I agree with Bill Cosby.
Blame us the parents blame us the neighbors. Always remember it take the village to raise a child. My husband and I am average Joe’s with a great deal of pride of for life and our morals we have goals and we expect the same for our only son. We know it’s hard out there so we are mindful in everything we do and what ever is done is for the better of our family. We are from the Caribbean and we work hard for everything that we have accomplished and have yet to accomplish. We need more pride within ourselves as a community. We have all the wrong things that are priorities in our life. Like expensive cars and no home to safely part it. Expensive clothes and barley the income to get by. When is the black community really going to get it we can’t look at anyone else but ourselves? Sadly we can talk about this till we are blue but I truly believe nothing is going to change with some individuals

So lets learn something from the book you may not like the fact that there is a black club out there that they even have the nerve so shun Michele Obama Our First Lady…because they considered her a ghetto girl when they assumed they were coming to Oak Bluffs for vacation last summer. Do not emulate their sad taught on what they believe a black elite should be, instead emulate the way they continue to push education to our kids, if you can be a mentor. Try new things get out of that comfort zone work hard play hard reward you. No don’t spend money on that car you cannot afford or the Gucci’s and the Coach bags or whatever bling you think is in. Instead check out a museum, if you have not had the chance safe the money on a trip where you can travel and learn something new. Volunteer in church or a local shelter. Do what you can to step out of your comfort zone in fact your zip code. These people have done it. Stop watching the tv and wishing or dreaming, we make stuff happen when we get up and jump into life. You do not need to have and Ivy League education or a six-figure salary to enjoy the world and get to know things and places. Start small see what’s new in your neighborhood. We have to help each other; sadly however there will always be the negatives that follow but you still keep pushing forward. I love the fact that we are talking agreeing and disagreeing I guess this is what Mr. Graham wanted. I’m not preaching this is stuff me and my hubby do with our 5yr old and it will hopefully be something he will not forget as he gets older and pushes they same morals with his kids.

Black people, wake up. We have to start celebrating education, class and success just as much as these hood-rats celebrate (tyler-perry-type) foolishness.

If you a despise people for being successful that probably has more to do with your own limitations. Yes for minorities the America is a tough race to run, but someone has to run, someone will win, it might as well be you, or your child.

Teach your children to value success and education. Let the mediocrity worry about keeping it real.

Yeah, you might need spell-check.

I am a very proud (but not overtly so, because pride is a sin)to be Black African American young woman. Both my husband and I belong to many of the organizations Mr. Graham mentioned in the book. We are members of Fraternities and sororities, fraternal orders ,greek lettered organizations and even a few of the most coveted organizations as well. We are very active in our community and sit on a few local boards, We are also very active in church and spiritual associations. This leaves our plate very full with responsibility, charity, dedication, love, sacrifice, honor and activity.
I think I forgot to mention that we also have two sons one preparing for his last year of high school and one preparing to enter first grade. Our lives are full indeed.
My husband without my help makes over 300K per year, our home is modest by many peoples standards (4bed/5bath small gated community with equal portions of all nationalities) but it is paid for, and we are both under forty years of age.
As a youth growing up in South Florida I think I was afforded many opportunties. I too participated in Jack and Jill of America,I was presented as a debutante by a very fabulous Sorority(one in which I hold membeship) and I participated various school activities. Although I didn’t “summer” in Martha’s Vinyard, and Sag Harbor(I have visited), I did take exstensive trips out of the country to places like Africa, Italy, Greece, Mexico, Canada, The Bahamas, Jamaica, and Haiti all before I was legally eligible to drive within these United States.
I never thought of these experiences as “elitist”. I felt honored to be one of my parents children, to be loved, and excited for the proviledge to experience those things at such an early age.I guess in some cases people lived in the proverbial vaccum and so did their children so in my mind and in my world at the time everyone was able and many I know were willing to provide these types of opportunities for their children. My siblings and I have all traveled well.
In my youth I have had the priviledge of going out religiously for many years(7) to feed the homeless, by making the sandwiches on Monday nights and distributing them on Tuesday nights. I have voluteered on my own without thought of receiving recognition for helping habitat for humanity, local homeless shelters, and individual families that I knew of personally or had been made aware of aparticualar family’s needs.
I am a giver, a helper, a doer.
Some people can be classified with me, and some people make salaries that dwarf ours tremendously I have associated with all of these types of people my whole life and I do not judge them ( still thinking about the Bible here) I compliment them on what they do in good faith and question continually what they plan to do for the future of our race of people. No one can rest on their laurels around here.
The truth is that if we don’t step up and try to encourage our neighbors to enhance their education( get rid of the slave mentality that is welfare and section 8), reinforce the importance of education, truth and honor in our youth (no saggin pants for boys and no too tight pants for girls),Stop looking down on our own that have already fallen and just lend a hand and pick them up if not with a job,at least the promise of a referal for a job, we will be no better then our white counterpart. Our race will fall as well.
The jews may be all of the negative sterotypes you could name of a group of people only concerned and seamingly obsessed with themselves but the one concept that they adhere to is “a nation of people who forgets it’s past is bound to repeat it”. Those are not only profound words but words to live by. I hope the people who don’t consider themselves “your kind of people”, will get the picture before it’s too late.
God Bless you all!
Oh and P.S. I don’t own my own business yet so I too am not responsible for who gets hired in the end but I put in as many “good words” as possible. (practice what you preach).

I’m happy for those who have achieved black elite status, but we can’t always depend on they’re help, though it is expected. We the middle class and poor must contiue to support each other and continue to look to god for our help. We must never forget that even though money itself is not evil, but the root of all evil.

I do plan on getting both Our kind of people and his latest book on Amazon. Thank s for the suggestion.

I do hear where you are coming from but the point I am trying to make is that in our commmunity you are more likely to find that those balcks that are the employers of other black tend to be a bit more “down to earth” than those that subscribe to “elite” status. It is the barbershop owners, and beauty-shop owners, Auto-repair shops owners, Daycare centers, the lower level lawyers, and doctors etc. These are the folks that employ other blacks and are making a difference in our communities. I know community lawyers and doctors, I also know some blacks that are lawyers in “whiteshoe firms”, trust me their is a difference in their outlook on life. Just as there is for the doctor that has a store front in the bronx as opposed to the more successful doctor that is on staff at on of the major hospitals.

As to paying rent. Hey somebody has to do it! The fact of the matter is the majority of folks of all races will be renters before they become homeowners. That is just simple economics. I mention “paying rent” because the majority of balck renters do NOT rent from other blacks. Since there are far more balck renters than homeowners in America why are they mostly renting from memebers of other races if we have a “black elite” class? Somehow those black elties forgot to purchase the property in historically black communities. If I go to rent in Harlem or Bed Stuy today I will most likely be renting from a white or a member of a recent immigrant group, NOT a Elite African American.

Back to good ole Bill, So he fought racisn in Hollywood? Somehow this appears to be more in HIS interest than that of rank and file blacks. And yes I do feel that his recent comments are due to his embrassment of poor black behavior. Growing up amoung so-called bougies blacks I would here this stuff all the time from blacks that have found themselves on the other side of the railroad tracks. If I had a nickel for every time I heard an upper-middle clas black person exclaim “why can’t balck people pull their sh*t together” I would be quite wealthy today.

When black folks that have achived something make such statements they are missing the point. They are turning their back on their responsiblities as “elites”. They need to read or re-read Plato’s Republic. What happened to the “talented tenth percent” that were supposed to LEAD the race?

P.S. As a married blackman with a household income of well over $100,000 per years (working poor), who grow up middle-class/ upper middle-class I am one of the blacks that can find a great deal of fault with the Cosby Show. Every single balck professional that I know personally has experienced some form of racism in the workplace. This included doctors, lawyers, business people with ivy-league educations. I also grew-up in the neighborhood that the Cosby show was set and we had many problems with racist police and neighbors. I cant recall a single episode of the Cosby show were Cliff or Clare were inexplicably denied a promotion or business opportunity for those unexplainable reasons that all of black folks know all so well.

The Cobsy show in many ways amounted to “Cool-Aide” for White America. By portraying a false world were everything was fine and dandy for those so-called hard working blacks it re-enforced the notion that it is the solely the fault of those blacks that cant get ahead in America. There is no racism in America of the 1980s! “Good” blacks have made it!