How The Other Black Girl Portrays Racism in the Workplace

“The Different Black Lady,” Hulu’s new collection primarily based on the best-selling novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris, is a vital addition to the streamer’s arsenal as a present that facilities on the hostile environments that Black ladies can face within the office. It is a near-universal expertise for a lot of Black ladies and is lastly being represented on display.

However when the present takes a flip and divulges the principle villain to be one other Black lady perpetuating violence towards her personal group, the present falls quick, making a world the place Black ladies are pitted towards one another. As a Black lady who has usually been the “solely” in office settings, the experiences that Nella (performed by Sinclair Daniel) goes via at Wagner Publishing resonated. However, in contrast to Nella, I at all times had Black colleagues to raise me up, not hold me down.

In “TOBG,” Nella experiences a office that feels acquainted to many Black ladies: fixed microaggressions alongside the traditional refrains of “I hear you and I am listening” and “variety issues” from well-meaning white colleagues. Add in having to work with a racist creator (who in episode two says, “I do not see shade, I see characters”) and the truth that Nella stays working at Wagner is a testomony to her resilience and her supportive finest pal, Malaika (Brittany Adebumola).

Nella is the one Black particular person within the workplace, till Hazel (Ashleigh Murray), the “different” Black woman, exhibits up, and Nella has a pal. Hazel instantly turns into a confidant; she will roll her eyes alongside Nella when she has to cease sporting her most well-liked lotion as a result of her boss “does not just like the scent” in episode one. However when Hazel begins to undermine Nella — and Nella turns into surrounded by Hazel’s suspicious pals with straight hair and bizarre conduct — one thing does not add up. What Nella finds as she peels away the layers is a conspiracy years within the making.

On the one hand, “TOBG”‘s portrayal of Black ladies’s experiences within the office is extraordinarily lifelike. As a younger Black particular person working in nonprofit organizations — overworked, underpaid, and on the whim of racism and capitalism — there have been instances I felt like I used to be shedding my thoughts. I might overthink each snide remark, each missed alternative, and each side-long look. After I realized that proximity to whiteness and assimilation is likely to be the one option to attain success, I felt the stress to climb up that ladder, at any price; to push down these round me till I rose up, the ultimate survivor within the gauntlet of a racist office tradition. However once I began my very own journey into understanding racism and systemic and institutional oppression, I noticed that I could not achieve success alone. I wanted a group of different Black ladies attempting simply as laborious to succeed, combating simply as laborious to problem racism within the office.

The present had a chance to indicate how Black ladies, so usually, really work collectively towards this racism. However as an alternative, it appears nearly obsessive about portraying what it means to cater to whiteness. In episode 9, Diana, the cult chief aiming to show Black ladies into senseless however profitable puppets via hair grease, says that “it took the correct individuals to get me to the place I’m as we speak.” And when she says “proper individuals,” we all know she really means white individuals, not the parents in her personal group. And that is what “TOBG” will get improper: though Black ladies are certainly usually pitted towards one another by others, the story right here turns into an excessive amount of about whiteness and proximity to whiteness. Take, for instance, when Hazel undermines Nella when she voices complaints about Colin Franklin’s stereotypical and racist portrayal of a Black secondary character in his guide. Hazel is finally catering to the sentiments of a white man as an alternative of being in a collective group together with her fellow Black colleague, who’s bravely talking her thoughts.

It was extraordinarily unsettling as a Black lady to observe all this play out. Though the last word villain is capitalism and racism, the people who find themselves main the cost to silence and quell Black ladies are different Black ladies. And that may result in dangerous and damaging stereotypes about Black ladies and their interactions within the office. In my experiences, particularly in nonprofits, I’ve at all times discovered that the Black ladies I labored with had my again — whether or not it was a delicate nod within the hallway, eye contact in a gathering when one thing dangerous was stated, or a fast “you there?” in a Groups message when issues had been tough. The work relationships I’ve had with different Black ladies had been extra like Nella and Malaika’s friendship: supportive, journey or die, displaying what occurs when Black ladies belief one another and stick collectively towards the horrors of racism.

The present annoyed me for a lot of causes, however I do suppose the overarching message is a vital one: it is a story about the true horrors that Black ladies face within the office and acknowledges that we’re generally those protecting our personal communities down. However the true villain, in the long run, should not be Black of us. The actual villain needs to be the notion that proximity to whiteness is required as a way to succeed. When the tales being made about us give attention to the horror inside our group as an alternative of the methods the Black group can rise collectively towards the horrors perpetuated towards us, all of us miss out.