A Member of the Club

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.