Full Description
Winner, Grand Prize, French Voices Award
In Too Black to Be French, Isabelle Boni-Claverie navigates the complexities of identity, race, and family in a world that constantly questions her belonging. Boni-Claverie's singular account interweaves the extraordinary life experiences of three generations of her family: her grandfather from Ivory Coast, who married a middle-class white woman from southern France in the 1930s; her biological parents, and her mixed-race aunt and white upper-class uncle who adopted her; as well as her own life as a successful film director and writer faced with abiding stereotypes and discrimination.
Written with humor and aplomb, Boni-Claverie's narrative examines the enduring effects of France's colonial past and the deep-seated structural prejudices affecting Black people in a country that prides itself on stories of its hospitality toward African Americans fleeing segregation. Updating this picture to reveal the complexities and challenges of being Black in France where discussion of race is often taboo, Boni-Claverie offers an American readership rare insights into racial dynamics on both sides of the Atlantic.
Too Black to Be French is at once a sociological portrait of France, a multicultural family album, and a transatlantic coming-of-age story. It will appeal to readers eager for a passionate fresh voice devoted to better understanding the challenges of today's world and the courage it takes to overcome them. Through vivid storytelling, Boni-Claverie invites readers to traverse a path filled with emotional depth, cultural introspection, and a quest for acceptance.
Contents
Foreword by Kaiama L. Glover vii
Acknowledgments xiii
1. If Only You'd Been Lighter 1
2. A Black Princess and White Nannies 5
3. You Will Play Balthazar, My Dear 11
4. Does Class Erase Race? 18
5. A "Little French Girl" in Ivory Coast 27
6. My Grandfather, Alphonse Boni 33
7. Slavery and the Holocaust: Why I Am a Humanist 44
8. When My Grandmother Married a Black Man 54
9. An "African Girl" in Bordeaux 64
10. What Color Is the French Language? 77
11. Why Race Trumps Class 83
12. Alphonse and Rose-Marie: A Mixed-Race Couple in the Colonies 88
13. A Little Story About Discrimination 97
14. My First Black Role Models 103
15. The Adventure of Revue Noire 111
16. French "Integration" 121
17. Where Are You From? 127
18. Coming Out of the Race Closet 134
19. Good Hair 141
20. Alphonse's Dilemmas 156
21. Fault Lines 173
22. French TV: Keeping Out the Color 183
23. The White Norm 201
24. Run, Black Man, Run! 210
25. The Guerlain Affair 215
26. The Three Fears 230
27. On the Advantage of Being White 240
28. In It Together 245
29. That's a Wrap 257
Notes 263
