Hot Takes*The Other Black Girl

The Other Black Girl, the 2021 debut novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris, hit the New York Times bestseller in the #6 spot during its first week on sale. The story takes place in the rarefied world of Manhattan book publishing. The year is 2018, and Nella Larsen is well into her second year as the only Black editorial assistant at the prestigious Wagner Books. She feels she is way overdue for a promotion, but that is clearly the furthest thing on her supervisor’s mind. Frustrated, Nella is both shocked and overjoyed when the company hires another Black woman. At last! Someone who will share and understand the microaggressions that take place in the office. A friend to lunch with! Maybe someday, when they are full-fledged Editors, they can look back and laugh/cry together about what it took to reach the top.

Nella is quickly disappointed. She soon realizes that she and the other Black girl have only racial heritage in common. Hazel May-McCall is determined to climb the ladder quickly and goes out of her way to disagree with Nella whenever the white executives are in earshot.

It is hard to understand why the other staff members feel that Nella is too Black or hard to understand. They all know that Nella lives with her boyfriend, a nice guy who is White. They all know that she chose to attend the University of Virginia (a predominately white bastion of higher learning) and, unlike Hazel May, does not use the vernacular in the workplace.

Then, strange things start happening to Nella. She finds a threatening note on her desk advising her to LEAVE WAGNER now. That unnerving incident is followed by others. Soon, Nella must worry about more than keeping her job. She must worry about staying alive.

At that point, The Other Black Girl segues from a work of commercial women’s fiction into a mystery/thriller.

Zakiya Harris is the first Black writer in a long time who does not bog down the text with explanations for White readers. While talking about our hair, she refers to combing “the kitchen” and keeps going. It is refreshing.

Harris is a terrific writer. I look forward to her next book.

Anita Doreen Diggs is the author of A Meeting in the Ladies Room,

Hot Takes- Finding Me by Viola Davis

“Achieving, becoming “somebody,” became my idea of being alive. I felt that achievement could detox the bad shit. It would detox the poverty. It would detox the fact that I felt less-than, being the only Black family in Central Falls. I could be reborn a successful person. I wanted to achieve more than what my mother had.”

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Getting Lit With Literature

“Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror.” – Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop

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Cozy Up with These Winter Reads

As snow falls and temperatures plunge, curl up inside with an uplifting or eye-opening book by one of these talented authors from underrepresented backgrounds. Their fresh perspectives make for rewarding reads all winter long.