A Member of the Club: Reflections on Life in a Racially Polarized World

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.