Racism

Questions of race are front and center in The Other Black Girl, in no small part because of the oppressive, racist conditions that Nella is forced to deal with while working at Wagner Books. To some extent, the racism that Nella experiences is couched in obviously offensive forms of treatment from her white coworkers. But beneath the surface of these more recognizable aggressions and microaggressions rests a layer of presumption that Nella fulfill her tasks with an air of servitude and docility that harkens back to the history of slavery, one whose implications become stronger as the novel progresses.

The surface-level, recognizable racism that Nella receives from her coworkers is an issue that Harris spends a great deal of time on as she goes about constructing the environment in which her novel takes place. Instead of moving at a quick clip from a plot perspective, the...