Fox developing a TV Show based on the book about the Boule/Jack & Jill/etc., "Our Kind of People"

[satam55]

FOX has a script order out for a drama series based on the book Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class.

The book, written by Lawrence Otis Graham, consisted of him interviewing members of "prominent black families" in America.

According to Variety, who broke the news, "The series is described as a multi-generational family drama uncovering the lives of America’s black upper class by chronicling a dazzling Chicago dynasty with a dark secret threatening to rip it apart."

Here's the book's description on Amazon:

Debutante cotillions. Million-dollar homes. Summers in Martha's Vineyard. Membership in the Links, Jack & Jill, Deltas, Boule, and AKAs. An obsession with the right schools, families, social clubs, and skin complexion. This is the world of the black upper class and the focus of the first book written about the black elite by a member of this hard-to-penetrate group.

Author and TV commentator Lawrence Otis Graham, one of the nation's most prominent spokesmen on race and class, spent six years interviewing the wealthiest black families in America. He includes historical photos of a people that made their first millions in the 1870s. Graham tells who's in and who's not in the group today with separate chapters on the elite in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Nashville, and New Orleans. A new Introduction explains the controversy that the book elicited from both the black and white communities.

Wendy Calhoun, a former co-executive producer on Empire, is writing the script and will executive produce. Ben Silverman and Montrel McKay are also executive producers. Silverman's EP credits include The Offie, Ugly Betty and Jane The Virgin and is an EP on the upcoming In the Country We Love, based on the book of the same name by Orange is the New Black star Diane Guerrero.

@LordCashmere

 

[Apollo Creed]

I imagine this will be some Tyler Perry/Lee Daniels mess

 

[Booker T Garvey]

Wtf? Man this book is old as hell

 

[Easy-E]

I expect it to be plenty

 

[get these nets]

Wtf? Man this book is old as hell

Yes. I remember when the author was making his media run/tour..claiming that the film was coming out with Denzel starring,etc,etc,

Book was interesting and very sad. Unless I'm confusing it with another book, there was all this ugliness about the lengths people would go through to pass (as white). He was recounting stories of members of his family who slipped away in to the white world..passing.

the author going to doctor to get the "ideal" nose...all kinds of stupid shyt

 

[invalid]

Yes. I remember when the author was making his media run/tour..claiming that the film was coming out with Denzel starring,etc,etc,

Book was interesting and very sad. Unless I'm confusing it with another book, there was all this ugliness about the lengths people would go through to pass (as white). He was recounting stories of members of his family who slipped away in to the white world..passing.

the author going to doctor to get the "ideal" nose...all kinds of stupid shyt

That's the same book. No one within those circles actually respects the guy. He just recently wrote an article on MV, pretty much recycling his same old talking points from the books, and many of those same people were going in on him. I'll see if I can screenshot some of the convos I saw.

 

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

Bougie black folk of today are so far removed from this mentality through.

Tho I must say it's interesting and telling of black people that are bougie people's has characteristics to it that you attribute to it that isn't exactly trying to appeal to or resemble cacs per se. like they do have their own culture that you could say other groups have which isn't just boiling down to aspire to whiteness.

 

[Ol’Otis]

shouldve known somebody from Empire was involved

 

[#1 pick]

All of these wack ass shows as if Black people aren't currently losing. This is fantasy at this point.

 

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

All of these wack ass shows as if Black people aren't currently losing. This is fantasy at this point.

If it makes you feel better the Earth is dying so we're all gonna lose eventually

 

[videogamestashbox.com]

Don't know how I feel about this, could be interesting 2017 Cosby show-ish or "high society" Atlanta housewives level bougie trash

 

[get these nets]

That's the same book. No one within those circles actually respects the guy. He just recently wrote an article on MV, pretty much recycling his same old talking points from the books, and many of those same people were going in on him. I'll see if I can screenshot some of the convos I saw.

Thanks. Would like to see those conversations.

 

[invalid]

@Get These Nets


This was the article -

Why is Martha’s Vineyard so Important to the Black Elite?

These were the responses from black vineyarders, two of whom I personally know.

Spoiler

These are not in any order...

 

[TRY GOD]

What message they trying to send

 

[get these nets]

@Get These Nets


This was the article -

Why is Martha’s Vineyard so Important to the Black Elite?

These were the responses from black vineyarders, two of whom I personally know.

Spoiler

These are not in any order...

Thank you

"Bovine Scatterings" I love that one. They definitely went in on him. Site that published the recent article is owned by his wife, they pulled his card about the "my kids were profiled" article he wrote a few years back, and cleared up the generalizations he made about the MV crowd.

I have my own views about Black elite class...whether they be here...in other parts of the diaspora, or in continental Africa. I think in more cases than not, they "fiddle while Rome burns" historically.