The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

 

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I've been hearing about this book for over a year now through it's yearlong publicity and marketing campaign. This was definitely one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 the way people raved about. So thank you to Atria Books for giving me the chance to read and review this early.

At it's core The Other Black Girl is a story set in a publishing office environment following Nella Rodgers who is a young editorial assistant at a major publisher with big dreams to becoming an editor. She's determined to be the next big Black editor following in the footsteps of Kendra Rae, an editor from the 80s who worked for the same company. While she's hopefully waiting for that promotion her work environment has also been getting to her. Her coworkers have been dismissive of the diversity town halls and her efforts to promote a more diverse work environment. Then one day she smells the strong scent of cocoa butter in the air and realizes there's another Black woman on the floor who isn't a visiting author. But is the new girl Hazel all she appears to be? And why is Nella's work life collapsing? 

Nella is so used to being surrounded by whiteness because she grew up in a mostly white town and she was in honors classes with the white kids. But at the same time she feels like an outsider among her white peers so she doesn't really have relationships with any of them. And then due to feeling like an outsider among the Black kids because they teased her and called her an Oreo as a child. She has a lot of insecurities about her Blackness that are amplified by her very white work environment. Her favorite book of all time was written by a Black author and edited by a Black author while being published by Wagner which is her sole motivation for working there.  And she's at that age where this is her first big job and she's still navigating where she wants to be in life.

Living in NYC she could very well go into the Black community and get involved versus trying to convince the white people in her workplace to do better. And that would probably balance out some of what she feels. But she and her friend Malaika would rather meet for drinks to complain about the overwhelmingly whiteness of their job and consuming activist media online. It was a little frustrating for me to read because that's all they talked about. And then with her partner Owen she can't fully talk to him about how she feels because he as a white man doesn't understand. I would've liked some more development on her relationships with both because we're told how she's changed so much to the point where work is all she talks about but that's all I ever saw her talk about.

Eventually Nella does in the second half of the book start to acknowledge her insecurities. Some of the threats she felt from Hazel were because she knew how to appease both Black and white people or code switch as she put it in a way. She's mad that the two other Black people she knows in her building like Hazel more but she's also never made a big effort to get to know them beyond a basic comradery as Black people. Hazel mentors Black girls, she knows how to do hair and tie head wraps, she has so many great connections around the city, she has a sexy Dominican boyfriend, she's the daughter and granddaughter of Civil Rights activists, all the coworkers love her, she even has Owen impressed. It's very easy for people to brush off Nella's rivalry as mostly in her head because the most nefarious thing she does for much of the book involves backing a racist portrayal in a book.

There are other POVs that are scattered throughout the novel but sometimes they distracted from the plot more than they added. I could see how she was trying to add to the foundation of the big twist but there was one I felt added nothing beyond their initial appearance. So I felt that part could've been either cut or expanded upon more.

Do I think this book is going to shake publishing up? Not really. Nothing in here was anything new from what people have been saying about the lack of diversity in publishing for years. The white powers that be are well aware of the power they hold against us. They have no qualms over pitting marginalized people against each other. And if you pay close attention even to the books you read you can see where they decide there can only be one even among authors they decide to elevate. I think people in publishing will enjoy this because it speaks to what they've been talking about for years. Plus they can relate to the all white environment and wishing their white coworkers could acknowledge them as Black people.

I see this story as a precautionary tale about how Black woman have to change themselves and go against their own to become leaders in a very white workplace as well as a precautionary tale to parents who think moving their kids to an all white environment is the best for them. This is an examination of how damaging it can be to grow up disconnected from your culture. To the point where you need to prove yourself to people who don't care and won't ever care. As the late great Toni Morrison said, “The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being." 

I actually do think Nella as a character could open up some interesting conversations about how we connect to the Black community and hold on to negative experiences. Her type is rare to see as a lead but I'm sure some of us have known women like her or been that woman. There are a lot of Black girls like her who don't feel like they fit in and will see themselves in her. And maybe it can open up some good discussions.