Carol McGruder’s “Too Legit” explores Black American expatriate life in 1990s Paris, examining spontaneous networks of solidarity between touring African American performers and Black women in Paris. Her account reveals how cultural diaspora creates unexpected moments of connection across geographical boundaries, capturing the bittersweet nature of temporary kinship where shared cultural identity transcends celebrity status and illuminates how Black cultural networks operate internationally.
One of the great benefits of being one of the relatively few soul sisters in this part of the world is being able to see and party with many of the African American groups that come abroad. Thus far in my career as an international groupette, I’ve seen the Pointer Sisters, the Commodores, M.C. Hammer, Maze, McCoy Tyner, Ornette Coleman, the Dazz Band (remember them?), Taj Mahal, and the Chicago Blues Festival. The best thing about these wonderful concerts, aside from being free, is that the artists are usually as happy to see me as I am to see them. Everybody gets lonely out on the road, and being in a foreign country intensifies that need to see a familiar face from home. Many times, I am the only personal guest for the whole band. My friends in France are always surprised at the solidarity and the feeling of being a part of the same family that most blacks feel. I am always welcomed and made to feel a part of the group and usually—no matter how big a star or how well-travelled—they are impressed and proud of me, proud that I’m out here more or less on my own following my dreams.
I’ve said many an early-morning teary-eyed goodbye. Hurried hugs and promises (that usually go unkept) to keep in touch with people who felt almost like family for an all too brief twenty-four to forty-eight hours. After hot nights out on the town like these, returning to my normally quiet and unglamorous life isn’t easy. One night in Paris, a few years back, after having eaten at a wonderful restaurant with some of the Commodores, we went onto the Keur Samba, one of the chicest discos in Paris. After dancing the night away, my girlfriend and I headed on back to her place, which was a six-story walk-up. How we laughed and laughed as we huffed and puffed at first walking and then practically crawling up those stairs. We laughed so hard that we had to stop and rest several times. And as we stretched out our long-tired bodies on her tiny little twin bed, we literally howled with delight at the thought of them seeing us like that. What a life!!
Excerpted with permission from Go Girl: The Black Woman’s Book of Travel and Adventure, ed. Elaine Lee, Berkeley: Ugogurl Productions (1997) and Go Girl 2: The Black Woman’s Book of Travel and Adventure, ed. Elaine Lee, Berkeley: Ugogurl Productions (2024)
