Colored Television

Jane met Lenny at a party in Brooklyn when she was 32. She had been living in New York City for a decade. She longed to have a family that looked like the biracial family she saw in a Hanna Andersson catalog. She called her white mother for advice, but her mother said Jane was better off without men. Jane’s parents were part of the first generation of interracial couples who were legally allowed to marry, and they had a bitter divorce when Jane was a child.

Before the party, Jane had called a psychic named Wesley Brown on her sister’s recommendation. The psychic had told Jane she would meet her future husband at the party and described a man similar to Lenny. When Jane saw Lenny at the party, she was excited, and they began talking, even though he was there with a white woman. Lenny was intrigued when Jane said she wrote about “mulattos.” Later, Jane called Wesley, and he advised her to make Lenny fall for her, or she would never find a husband.

Jane and Lenny had two children soon after marriage. When the kids were younger, they liked to watch “colored television” together after the kids had gone to bed. This is what Lenny called the trashy television shows aimed at Black audiences, like Tyler Perry’s shows and Black Entertainment Television (BET)’s Hell Date.

Jane goes to her office on campus to get an article called “The Other Man” by a white sociologist named Hiram Cavendish about “mulattos” in the United States. She has decided to include primary documents in her novel. In her office, she sees a wooden plaque that says “Make It Worse” that a student, Rick, had given her years after her class. Rick had gone on to become a successful television writer, and he credited this advice Jane had given him about one of his stories—to make the scenarios worse to heighten the tension—for his success as a writer.

After getting the article she was looking for, Jane begins to leave the office building when she catches sight of Kay, a colleague, in an office down the hall. Kay is brushing her teeth and clearly living in her office. Kay had been demoted from the tenure track after she failed to finish a book. Startled, Jane runs away.

Jane returns to Brett’s studio and reads the article. Cavendish describes how every “mulatto” experience in the United States is singular. Jane cuts up the article and includes excerpts of it throughout the novel manuscript. When she is done, she gets into bed with Lenny and tells him the manuscript is almost finished. He sleepily says, “Keep this mulatto girl writing” (47).

Jane finishes her book manuscript in March. She immediately sends it to her agent, Honor. Then, she opens an expensive bottle of Brett’s wine and goes into the living room to tell Lenny. He is proud of her. Jane imagines how her former self (“Brooklyn Jane”) would have seen this moment: in a beautiful house (although not her own house), wearing a beautiful muumuu (owned by Brett’s wife), with a completed manuscript, a handsome husband, and children. Jane and Lenny have “book-completion sex” (54). While they have sex, Jane imagines “Brooklyn Jane” watching them from outside the window.

The morning after receiving the manuscript, Jane’s agent calls her and tells her she loves the book and will be forwarding it to the publisher, Josiah, with whom Jane published her first book. Although Jane is skeptical, Honor has already read the manuscript, and she is pleased at the news. Ever since finishing the book, things have been better between Jane and Lenny.

Jane and Lenny host a birthday party for Ruby in late March. They hadn’t been able to throw a proper birthday party for Ruby in years because they had no money or space to do so. Brett’s house intrigues and impresses the girls’ mothers, which Jane implies is their own. Jane worries that they will think the Frozen Baskin-Robbins sheet cake they got Ruth looks cheap. Jane had bought Ruby an American Girl doll, an extravagant purchase for them, as a gift, and Jane is eager to give it to her daughter. Jane had selected Addy Walker, an American Girl who was born into enslavement and sought freedom in the North. Ruby begins opening presents, and she is visibly disappointed when she sees the Addy doll.

Then, the magician arrives. Jane notices Ruby isn’t watching the magician. She goes upstairs to find Ruby crying in her room. Ruby tells Jane she doesn’t want the doll—not because it’s a Black girl but because the point of American Girl dolls is to collect them and their outfits, and she knows they will never be able to afford more than one. Jane understands Ruby’s distress because Jane also grew up as the child of poor, starving artists with more “culture” than cash. Jane comforts her and asks Ruby if she wants to rejoin her party with her friends. Ruby replies that the guests aren’t her friends, just girls that Jane had invited on her behalf.