Harlem Duet

The voice of Louis Farrakhan plays over the sounds of “dulcet blue tones” (64). He speaks of American society dragging down African Americans. Magi and Billie are laughing over Magi’s dating life as they continue packing the remaining items in the apartment. Billie has decided to move out, even though Magi tells her not to feel pressured to do so. She asks Magi if she wants a mask, but Magi turns the offer down, prompting Billie to smash it to the floor: “I don’t want anything that’s —- that was ours” (65). Billie says that she has believed in lies all her life, and even Harlem no longer provides the joy and comfort it once did. Magi refutes her statement, reminding Billie that earning her Master’s degree is not a lie, and that Othello is the one who is living a lie by wanting to “White wash his life” (66). Magi adds that she has seen black men “do things for White women they wouldn’t dream of doing for me” (67).

Othello arrives, holding Billie’s Dutch pot. Magi asks him how things are going at “Harlumbia—those 10 square blocks of Whitedom, owned by Columbia University, set smack dab in the middle of Harlem” (67).