The Other Black Girl

Meanwhile, Nella and Malaika discuss Nella’s near-encounter with Shani while huffing through a Pitbull-themed workout. Malaika chastises Nella for agreeing to meet with a stranger and is even more perturbed when Nella describes Shani’s abduction. Nella reports that after the sedan drove away, she witnessed someone in a hood retrieve Shani’s phone from the trash, and she later received a call from the same number. The woman on the other end refused to answer any of Nella’s questions but sent a photo of Hazel wearing a “COOPER’S MAG” sweatshirt and urged Nella to “Do some more digging” to find out “who Hazel really is” (289).

Malaika is deeply concerned, causing Nella to feel a pang of guilt for the strain she’s put on her relationships with Malaika and Owen. Nella barely speaks to her boyfriend and works during their meals together. Owen attributes the change in Nella’s behavior to Hazel. He assumes that she resents Hazel because Nella is no longer “the only Black girl at work” (293). One night this assumption triggers an argument in which Owen likens his occasional experience of being a racial minority in their social circle to Nella’s daily experience as a Black woman, and the argument ends in awkward silence.

Nella changes the subject by telling Malaika about the potential Jesse Watson project. Malaika empathizes with Nella’s frustration at the idea of being paired with Hazel and wonders whether Nella should finally quit. Malaika advises Nella to go out with a bang, to sabotage the meeting by announcing Wagner’s racist history and practices, thus presenting herself as the only Black editor Jesse Watson could possibly trust. Nella is shocked by her friend’s advice, so Malaika pivots to point out that it will be difficult for Hazel to effectively code switch in a meeting with Richard and Vera and a radical blacktivist. She suggests that Nella “wow the pants off Jesse Watson” by presenting herself as more authentically Black than Hazel (301), which will make him demand to work with Nella alone. Nella considers this option optimistically.

On October 25, Nella and Malaika stand outside the brownstone building where Hazel, Juanita, and Manny live. Nella has convinced a reluctant Malaika to attend the natural hair party and act as a distraction while Nella searches for evidence that might explain Hazel’s suspicious behavior and multiple identities. Hazel opens the door and greets them, calling Malaika by the wrong name. Hazel leads them through a hallway where Malaika spots a photograph of all four of Hazel’s grandparents, taken in 1963. Nella freezes, remembering that Hazel previously said her grandfather was killed at a protest in 1961. Realizing her mistake, Hazel quickly recovers by clarifying that one of the men in the photograph is her step-grandfather.

They continue to the living room, where Hazel introduces Nella and Malaika to the rest of the party guests, again introducing Malaika by the wrong name. Malaika responds with a series of snide comments that make Nella cringe. Nella curiously regards the other Black women at the party—Ebonee, Camille, and Kiara—who seem to be surrounded by stereotypically white cultural signifiers: They date men from Missoula who “[look] fresh out of a Patagonia ad” (310); they flip through subscriptions of the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and Harper’s Bazaar; they snack on blue corn tortilla chips and Wheat Thins. Nella learns that the women are all Hazel’s mentees. Nella muses that Hazel has collected them “like a handful of Black girl Tamagotchis” (317).

Nella sits down in front of Hazel, who offers her a choice of head scarves before starting to work Smooth’d Out, an unlabeled grease, through Nella’s scalp. Nella eases back and thinks about the profound physical intimacy of Black women doing one another’s hair, until Malaika interrupts by asking to read the grease’s label. After an awkward pause, Hazel replies that there isn’t any label and the recipe is secret. She finishes wrapping Nella’s head scarf, and the others admire her work. Grasping her opportunity, Nella excuses herself to use the mirror in the upstairs bathroom.

Once upstairs, Nella rushes into Hazel’s bedroom to search for evidence. As she rummages through the closet and scans the dresser, she notices that the room has a bland orderliness that is “not unlike [Hazel’s] cubicle desk” (321). Just as she finds a manilla folder in a cabinet under the TV, Nella receives a text from Malaika: “Two coming up for bathroom. Code Kente” (322), meaning no one suspects anything yet. Nella switches off the bedroom light and mentally prepares an excuse in case she is caught.

Using only the flashlight on her phone, Nella thumbs through the contents of the folder. It contains a stack of sheets with the names and faces of different Black women along with meticulous notes. To her horror, Nella finds a sheet on Kendra Rae Phillips and one on herself, which is labeled with a sticky note: “Seems complacent enough; but more efforts won’t hurt—order of 8 jars coming in 10/20” (324). Nella snaps a few photos and hears a toilet flush. One of the younger Black women from the party wonders aloud where Nella is, and another asks if Nella is an “Involuntary.” Both scoff at the idea that a Black woman wouldn’t want Hazel’s help. Nella counts to 10 twice and slips out of Hazel’s bedroom.

On the way home from the party, Nella shows the photos to Malaika and explains that the names on the files are the same names Nella read on the list on the printer at Wagner. Nella believes these women are being targeted and involuntarily “converted to something” (326). A quick review of the handwritten notes on their bios confirms her suspicions: They had each undergone transformation, such as “blaccents” corrected and “ungratefulness” reversed. Nella’s own bio characterizes her as “complacent” and estimates that the “estimated time until cycle completion [is] ~4 months” (328). Nella recognizes the handwriting as Richard’s and realizes that the “Kenny” she overheard him whispering about was Kendra Rae. She worries that Richard and whoever is behind the conversions will “deal with” Nella the way that they “dealt with” Kendra Rae. Alarmed, Malaika urges Nella to text the photos to Shani’s number. Nella agrees, telling her friend she will send them after she gets home.

The following day, Nella arrives at work to find Jesse Watson already there. He invites Nella to sit next to him, but she declines, thinking Richard or Vera might prefer that seat. Jesse shrugs, and Nella worries that she seemed too deferential to her white bosses. She attempts to recover with a joke about spreading out the “Black folk,” and Jesse appears even more offended. He lights up, however, when Hazel arrives and sits next to him.

When the editors ask Jesse to describe his project, Nella interjects, wondering which social justice issues he will explore. Jesse replies that he’d prefer to focus on a more positive topic, such as two cops from different backgrounds who “teach each other things, despite their differences” (336). Baffled, Nella studies Jesse’s appearance, noticing he looks “washed out” with his clear glasses frames, tidy beard, and well-greased hair. Nella realizes he has been converted and looks up to see Hazel wearing “a look of smug, unbridled triumph” (337).

Nella excuses herself to the bathroom, and Hazel follows. Hazel knows that Nella saw the files and is aware of Richard’s and her plans to manipulate Black women. Hazel pulls out two different formulas of hair grease—Smooth’d Out and Kink Free—and explains that they act as “social lubricants” that “[numb] the ventromedial prefrontal cortex” to make Black women “more amenable when it comes to working for and with white folks” (340). Nella retorts that the grease forces them to compromise Black values and their ancestors would be disappointed. She accuses Hazel of being an “Uncle Tom,” and Hazel responds by claiming that it’s easier to lean into a stereotype to achieve certain goals. Nella asks about the “Involuntaries,” and Hazel replies that eventually everyone loves the effects of the grease. She persuades Nella to “stop fighting the tide” and consent to conversion (343), claiming it will be easy since Nella used the grease for months. Confused, Nella says she only applied the grease once, and Hazel laughs, speculating that conversion was that much easier because Nella “gave up on [her] convictions a long time ago” (345). Nella realizes she never texted the photographs that might have freed Kendra Rae and knows that this decision was “the nail in her coffin of irresponsible Blackness” (354). Sensing that Nella has made her decision, Hazel hands her a jar of grease to prepare her for transfer to another publishing house. As they return to the meeting together, Nella reflects on how free and happy Jesse now appears. She can’t recall ever feeling that way.

It’s January 2019, and Shani now works at Scope Magazine in Portland, Oregon. She’s drafted a well-supported article that contains undeniable evidence collected from the Resistance and from her own records that OBGs have been manipulating Black women all over the country for decades. Shani prepares to email the article to her editor, Gwen, who she believes will privilege it for next-day publication. Before hitting send, Shani leans back in her chair and thinks about her last conversation with Kendra Rae, who also seemed ready to disobey the Resistance’s rules and leak information about OBGs. Shani hasn’t heard from Kendra Rae or the Resistance in months and wonders what happened to them.

After mentally cataloguing the risks and benefits, Shani hits send and is surprised when her email bounces back. She notes that Gwen’s office is dark. Reagan, one of Shani’s white coworkers, observes Shani’s confusion and informs her that Gwen received a short-notice offer to participate in a prestigious research study in Missouri. An interim editor is scheduled to take her place. Shani is devastated by this news since Gwen’s absence will delay her publication plans.

Just as Shani asks when Gwen will return, the interim editor strides into the office: a confident young Black woman with “a chic, asymmetrical bob that [is] perfectly, painfully, straight” and a “nauseating, syrupy odor” (353, 354). The woman introduces herself as Delilah Henson, but Shani recognizes her as Nella Rodgers. When Nella asks for Shani, Reagan happily complies. Nella tells Shani she’d like to discuss her article and, after Reagan leaves, puts a hand on Shani’s shoulder to assure her that, “You can be real with me, sis” (354).