The other black girl 2.6.24

Welcome to Read You Down podcast. My name is Jayonna Reed and I am the founder and one of the co-hosts of the podcast. I have about eight members right now and you'll get a little spiel about every single one of them as the episodes progress. This week we're talking about The Other Black Girl by Zakiah Delilah Harris. After discussing it we went and watched the first episode on Hulu and then came back and discussed it some more. Tune in once a month to Read You Down. Well, to be honest, before, just full disclaimer, I feel like nothing happened in the book. Second that. The very, very, very literal aspect of it. I'm an avid reader and when I tell you I put this book down multiple times and the only reason why I picked it back up was because, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but like I honestly didn't know because it wasn't structured like a thriller in the beginning, so I was bored. So I didn't miss anything? No. It's just the way that, Jayonna, we were kind of talking about this, it's just the way that characters are introduced, it was just a little. Correct. It was like the first time Shani, or Shani, I don't know how y'all, but the first time I was like, who is this? What is this context? What's going on? But anyway, we'll start page 81, let me go to it. But this is when you find out that Nella, y'all said Nella, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but like I honestly didn't know because I was like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who is like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but N Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, let me get it together, but Nella is the one who's like, oh, I'm in this book club, and now Nella's boss is asking Hazel to read books and not asking Nella to read these books. So she has to step up her game, she's like, well, this other girl's gonna take my job. This other girl's stepping in my way. This other girl's trying to take my position. I might have messed up. It went from like 1980 and... Yes, I was texting Diana like, I don't know what's going on in this room. It was... Were y'all keeping up with the dates at the time? I was flipping back to see who was talking, because I figured out there's certain people talking in the 80s versus the present day. That's the only difference, and I was just like, okay. Yeah, it took me a while to figure it out. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. We were keeping up with the months. Mm-mm, not the months. No, that was too much. I was like, this is a flashback, okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, as far as my records that I have right now, this page, 99, is when Shani? Shani? Shani. Shani, thank you, guys. That's the first time she comes out, and this is 2018. So, this is still kind of in the time we're in now. This is in a flashback year. Yeah. So, when this first happened, I was very confused. I didn't know who this person was, why they came up, and they only had, what, just a couple pages, two pages. Mm-hmm. And you're like... Yeah. Awkwardly. Thank you, Zakiya. No, we're tall enough. But before this page, there is a quote that I highlighted that I liked, and I wanted to see how y'all felt, but it says, you may think they're okay with you, and they'll make you think that they are, but they really aren't. They never will be. Your presence only makes them fear their own absence. That's a wolf in sheep's clothing right there, baby. Mm-hmm. I thought that was very deep. It was. Yeah. Especially when just being in spaces that we aren't typically allowed in, or, you know, doing things like that. Mm-hmm. Because you're on this platform, and this pedestal, but like... Oh. Now, give me your turn. No. Whether or not you play on the stool. Okay. But you made it seem. Mm-hmm. So, the next thing I'm turning to is page 169, and we're talking about how... How did that happen? In between there? No. No. I know. They built a lot. A lot of character builds. Yeah. Oh, jeez. Yeah. What do they call the character development? Development, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm like, she's good at describing things, but it's like, okay, we don't need, like... I fell asleep on her describing things. Wow. Yeah. Dang, yeah. I put this book down many times. I finished it today. Yay! Thank you! Did you take a nap? My bad. But yeah, so this is a page where Vera is asking Nella to apologize to Colin for her comments. This is when she told Colin, the white author, that, hey, your main black character is low-key racist. She didn't say that, but she's not pathetic, you know? Yeah. I love it. Are you willing to give up your, I guess, values to do a book? A book. Yeah. A book. And your honest opinion, too. I think that there is a way to clarify without necessarily apologizing. I can't apologize because you feel convicted. Mm-hmm. There's nothing really to apologize for. You know, there's inner work that has to be done. However, how I made you feel in this moment was not my intent. Let me clarify. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm pretty tired at this point in my career of coddling people's emotions. Mm-hmm. I think that as a professional, you should be able to step outside of yourself and be, you know, safe. Let me piggyback off the words, because as a professional, Nella wasn't prepared. And I think she spoke out of turn, which is a space that she just created. Like, she created this space that wasn't ready for her to seek her portion. Because she was so caught up on all the things going on, when they did ask her, she had her concerns about it. There was no preparation as far as, like, you know, pulling her boss to the side and making sure that she listed those concerns before the author was in the room. And then on top of that, she kind of sputtered her way through, like, what she was thinking. Like, she could have been way more prepared, and then it would have been, you know, so professional to the point where a lot of times, if you are, what's the word for it? If you're assertive in, like, how you give out information, people will not argue with you. They'll take that step back and look at you. Or maybe in, like, there was a different way to give him his criticism. Because clearly, Vera catered to him in a different way. So you need to, you know, find that space of how to give criticism and work on that. Because she just wasn't prepared to give it and then back it up. And you need to be able to back it up when you're saying stuff like that. I will say, I feel like, as the only Black person in the room, though, I feel like she has to say something, right? Because then, whenever the backlash happens, it's going to be, oh, were there no Black people in this room? And then it is going to fall back on her. So I feel like she has to say something. But I don't know if her saying it a different way would have... I've seen her opportunities before. She stalled on it three times, I want to say. She did. She stalled three times. And that was my problem with Nella. Like, girl, you know it ain't right. And she talked to Malika about it. So you definitely know, like, your presentation of, like, it not being right definitely speaks up. But how she got cornered and made herself uncomfortable and then the platform was no longer hers. They dumped her down before she could even, like, present it fully in the correct way. Okay. No points allowed. Seriously. For context, y'all, my roommate just walked in. All right. Yeah. I agree with that. It's kind of hard because you want to state your opinion, but you have to know how to state it. You know? And her being at that job for two years, she should have had that professional, like... Development. Exactly. And had that moment to really, you know? Yeah. I think, like, that author was there since she was there. Which means she had an ample amount of time to learn how to, like, give criticism to him. Because she had a whole, like, binder of how to talk to certain people and, like, what to do. Anything in there sucks. Right. Oh. Where's your backbone? Buck up, girl. The next thing that I had was the fact that Hazel told Richard about the notes. So, let's go back to before you know what we know from reading the end of the book. But when you first read that you found out Richard pulls Nella aside and tells her, you know, Hazel told me about these notes, and da-da-da-da. How did y'all feel? What did you think? Instantly, Hazel's an op. Like... Oh, yeah. Hazel had been an op. Yeah. Yeah. She's like, oh, wow. She's one of them. Yeah. Because she sidelined Nella a lot. Yeah. She's been an op. Nella just didn't want to believe it. She wanted to pray him so bad. She did. She did. It was so frustrating. I was getting second-hand embarrassment reading a lot of the book. It's difficult reading a book that has what one can perceive as like a week. That's true. Sorry to interrupt you, but... That's real. I was cringing this entire book. And like Courtney said, it is because it was the main character. She just wasn't somebody... She could not be my friend. Nella couldn't be my friend. That's all it was. I can't relate to people that have no backbone, can't stand on who they are, and just overall like, girl, who are you? Because she didn't know. And the insecurities in her read through the book. Oh, yeah. And she's so annoyed. Yeah. That was just a weird moment. I mean, yeah, she felt very offish, but was the intent good? It could have been good intentions. But going to the boss, the big boss? No, there's no good intentions. I agree. That's like putting someone else's trauma out there that you didn't... Or outing someone without their absolute permission. Because I feel like that was traumatizing for her. Yeah. Yeah. She had no place. But she was bonafide about it. Right. She did. Yeah. And then he's like, well, I want you to feel... But then at the same time, now that we know we finished the book, we know that Richard was in on it. And he knows who's sending the letters and what's going on. But... Read the book. We're not even there yet. Richard. No worries, just watch the show. It's not the same, but it'll get the points across. Because I feel like if I... So I watched the show when it first came out. I feel like if I didn't watch the show and I just read the book, I wouldn't... I would be so confused. Yeah. At a lot of parts. Yeah. I don't think it was until... I think it was part three. I think it was part three that it clicked. I don't know if that all came for you. I can't remember who was talking. I'll have to go back. But it was like everything came together. When the other three people were talking about how they were investigating and they're like, Hazel's not who she believes, how she says she is and stuff. Oh, yeah. That's when it clicked. Like, okay, now I know what's going on. But the first 200 pages is like, who are these people? What in the world is happening? Yeah. Wait. Aren't we going to talk about the hair green? Yeah. Because I was like, that was sprinkled throughout the book. And I was like, what is going on? It was very random. One of those things that sticks out like a sore thumb, but you're trying to place it because this is not anatomy. Like, why? Yeah. Got it. And the end? Yeah. Did anyone see that coming? Fair end. I did start to figure it out. Only because I went back to the first chapter when the girl was scratching her head. So I was like, why is she scratching her head? Like, something is going on. I'm parking the car. Something's going on with this green. And I'm just like, everybody's touching their head. And like, they spent so much time with like endorsing the, I'm going to say the ghetto family's hair culture store that Hazel was promoting. And this is my special thing. Her like, boyfriend's store. They focus on her scent, her hair scent so much. And I was just like, it's something about this cookie butter. It's something about it. And how did the FDA approve this? And they call it a social lubricant. And I think it's very interesting because a lot of us have to code switch every day in our jobs and things we do. But do we need hair cream for it? Hello. Welcome to the party. Jump in. We are just talking about the hair grease. So perfect timing. Oh, y'all's boxes are right there too. There's one with y'all's names on it. Sure. It's whatever you want it to be. Oh, it is so great. Okay, y'all. We just watched the first episode on Hulu. And I have to know, how do y'all feel? Like, what's going through y'all's heads? What questions do you have? Let's discuss the differences. Let's really, really get into it because I haven't seen the first episode until now. And to me, kind of like y'all on the floor, because the book I read was not a thriller, kind of like you said earlier, Antoinette. So, yeah, what's y'all's questions? How do y'all feel? I just wanted to know if, like, is that how it happened in the book? Because if that's how it happened in the book, like, I'd read the book now. But the way y'all was skipping around, I was like, damn, I don't want to read this now. But if it's like that, it's not like that. No, literally, like you were saying, skipping forward 100 pages here and 100 pages there, that really is how the story, like, the story progressed so slow. And it built up just, like, with so many details. Versus here, they're adding in scenes. They're adding in, like, you know, emotions and faces and all this other stuff that, it kind of strays away from the perspective of the book. So, would you say this was, like, the first 150 pages of the book? We're past that. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. So, page 97 is where she gets the note. And we're there now. Yeah. And she wasn't given. Yeah. And she wasn't giving feedback to Colin in that public space like that. That never happened. They are building up. And, like, they never were like, Hazel, let's talk about your opportunities that early in the book. You know, they were building up a lot of, like, you know, details and background. And turning the whole office, you know, and shining the spotlight on her, taking more opportunities, you know, and then she's progressively getting sent to the back. So, Hazel hadn't thrown her under the bus like that, then? No. Not directly like that. Not like that. Not like that. Not like that. Not like that. Yeah. Because she also, in the book, she never told Nella, I'll back you up if you say anything. Yeah. That didn't happen. That didn't happen. But they did have a meeting. A lunch. Yeah, a lunch or something where Hazel did say positive things about the book. And also in the book, the critical part that they kind of fed up here as well is the Shani. That was the girl creeping in the little hallways outside of the office thing. Remember, her portion and then the editor on the wall, Kendra Ray's portion, they all had their perspectives of what was happening in their time. So, they weren't talking from present day. They were going back to the 80s. They were going back to 2018 or something like that. So, there was a lot of other perspectives being added in the book that you just don't get here. The show was worth watching, I think. I mean, I liked that first episode. I'm going to go home and watch the rest of it. I don't care. Y'all going to get a little angry, but it's okay. It's fine. Her hairline took me out. I mean, it's just not the hairline. Y'all know how you have this part, like your hair. They took this part, one, two, three, four, and made giant just like locks. Dookie braids? Like dookie locks. And then it's crocheted in the back. So, you see her pulling her hair back a lot and literally, y'all don't see it. I was upset. I'm already so mad that Hazel's not a real dress head. I mean, she's a lost tweet. But like, Hazel's a decent person and a lost tweet. But like, they give Hazel's perspective in the show of how she came to be Hazel, which is crazy. They did not do that in the book. No, Hazel has a whole background that they explain way more in the show. A little bit. Just a high class one. She got turned into like a high class one. But they told her friend, Nella's friend, all about Hazel. But they never got to tell Nella. Because she was trying to tell her and then they like kidnapped her or whatever. Are you kidding me? Yeah, y'all just gotta listen to me. Oh, Yanni snatched her up. Yanni got snatched up. But, I'm the one who told her. I'm the one who told her so much. Depending on if you're reading or watching, it changes. It changes. First of all, who gets snatched in the book? Shani gets snatched in the book. But Shani gets snatched in the show too. I'm not gonna say. Well, who snatched Shani in the book? People that we were reading about. They connected them. They connected the 1980s young lady with the Shani girl. Because apparently, this story began way back in the 80s. And it's been progressing through different people all the way to the present day. They do. But it's very mixed up. That's all. We also kind of get someone's perspective and a character that is not really... I mean, they mention the person in the book, but we don't get their perspective. In the book, I ended the book very confused. I was like, so the character is me. And you just told us this in the last one. Yeah. The person's character is me. The video bit drove my soul up. It turns you into an OBG. But definitely watch. These are easy episodes to watch. They're like 30 minutes. I believe in you. You put the hair grease on and you turn into an OBGYN. What? You should be smacking people. Alright, y'all. Catch us next month on Review Now.