On February 13 2019, a reading of my memoir Too Black to be French was held at the Maison Française of NYU, in New York.
It was the first time I could actually share my book with an American audience. It was great. Lots of people came (there was not even enough room for everybody!). And we had a very exciting conversation.
Here are some excerpts beautifully read by young female actor Michelle Kariuki
In this first excerpt I tell how my grandmother, who was white and had married an African man, discovered colonial racism when they embarked together for Africa, in 1939.
In 1991, I visited New York for the first time. Race was not something we would talk about in France. The prevailing motto was (and still is) : universalism. But then I came to New York and had an African-American boyfriend…
Racial discrimination is not only a political and social matter. It is a denial of who you are. Here I tell the turmoil I went through after being refused an apartment because I am black. I was a student at that time and could not even talk about it with my family.
Too Black To Be French
