In The Kitchen
... In his essay In the Kitchen, he uses his detailed personal family experiences to help the reader gain insight into the cultural beliefs and understandings of how Afro-Americans perceive themselves and their fellow Afro-Americans. ... Gates begins the essay speaking of the kitchen in his house. ... This introduction to hair brings about the debut of the second kitchen. The definition of the second kitchen, as Gates explains, “but the word has another meaning, and the kitchen that I’m speaking of is the very kinky bit of hair at the back of your head, where your neck meets your shirt collar,” page 312, paragraph 5. ... Gates uses this, “kitchen,” terminology , along with detailed examples, to lead the reader to feel and see the tribulations of being an Afro-American. ... Good hair, the common goal for these Afro-Americans, brings the reader back to the kitchen. This kitchen, no matter how hot the iron, no matter how powerful the chemical, no matter how stringent the mashed potatoes-and-lye formula of a man’s “process,” neither God or woman nor Sammy Davis, Jr.