Summary Of In The Kitchen By Henry Louis Gates

Marisol Avila

Professor Melanie Kachadoorian

English 10

October 6, 2015

White Privilege

Since the beginning of time, privilege has existed. Privilege, specifically white privilege, is written all over American history. Unfortunately, it still exists till this day, till this very moment. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the W.E.B Du Bois Professor of Humanities at Harvard and director of the W.E.B Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research. In his essay “In the Kitchen” he uses his childhood memories to show how African Americans do not see hair as just hair. Gates figurative use of hair shows us how far the unprivileged are willing to go in order to get a sense of acceptance by the privileged. White privilege is difficult to see for those

who were born with access to power and resources, but it is very visible for those to whom privilege was not granted. People who have any sort of privilege that they were born into such as gender, class, sexual orientation, or age, it just is- it’s normal.
Gates essay is in relation to white privilege. In his memoir, he begins to talk about how his mother styled hair in the kitchen. Gates goes on to say that there is more than just one meaning to the word kitchen. Not only does it mean a room where you cook, but it also means the section of hair “kink” at the back of the head where the neck meets the collar of the shirt. He then begins to explain how indestructible and permanent the kitchen is; as much as they, black people, try to straighten it. Gates finds a political significance to it. Hair can be described as either “good” or “bad” hair. “Good” hair was naturally possessed by white people, while African- Americans displayed a permanent kitchen, in other words “bad” hair. He elaborates on how his race was influenced by the so called “ good hair” by talking about Mr. Charlie, a light skinned African- American who hid his “kitchen.”
Gates memoir emphasis how African Americans strived to have hair like white people to represent black assimilation into white society.

They tried to feel some sort of acceptance by straightening their “kink” with a hot iron in order to have “good” hair. Gates says, “The kitchen was permanent… no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t de-kink a person’s kitchen. So you trimmed it off as best you could” (627). In other words, Gates is saying that the kitchen hints that African Americans will never be apart of the white society, the dominant discourse. Gates uses Nat King Cole and Frederick Douglas as examples to argue his point that even the most expensive or unorthodox way of trying to remove the kitchen is impossible. Frederick Douglas, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Nat King Cole are famous recognizable African American names that support Gates’ credibility as a writer and representative of the black community. By the end of the essay, Gates is upset when he sees Nat King Cole on television, and is reminded of how African Americans were willing to go as far as ironing their “kink” in order to feel the acceptance that they were deprived from as being

unprivileged.
Peggy McIntosh, an American feminist, talks about the different unearned privileges that every white person gets without being aware of it in her essay “White Privilege and Male Privilege. “ McIntosh’s main point of her essay is that white people are taught to ignore the fact that they are granted social privileges that African Americans lack, because we live in a society where white is the dominant race and it comes with its privileges. She creates an invisible knapsack of daily white privileges and unpacks it by giving a list of daily experiences where white privilege is apparent. After her list of unearned white privilege, she makes a distinction between earned power and conferred privilege. Conferred power is available to certain groups while earned power can be obtained by anybody. McIntosh points out that white people refuse to acknowledge their conferred privilege and in order for that to change, white people need to acknowledge this unearned privilege and be willing to give it up for African Americans and other minority groups to be able to enjoy freedom.
After reading McIntosh’s essay I can agree with the idea that white people do not acknowledge their unearned privilege.

She says, “When I am told about our national heritage or about ‘civilization,’ I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.” McIntosh demonstrates that people born within the dominant race in America are granted certain unearned privileges that people of color are not granted. In her list, she uses daily experiences to show how white people undergo advantages, because of the color of their skin. But she completely ignores the fact that there is more than one type of privilege. She says, “ If I need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area, which I can afford and in which I would want to live” (607). She believes that because of the color of her skin, she is able to pay for her housing anywhere that she chooses. This is one of the several points that she lists that exposed her economic status as a middle class person than her status as a white person. McIntosh seems to have confused the two privileges, because she has failed to recognize her economic status as a

privilege.
Gates and McIntosh can both agree that white people are apart of the dominant discourse, because they are the dominant race. White people are afforded with unearned privileges in life that people of color, such as African Americans, never get to experience. In Gates essay, he makes it clear that African Americans will never be apart of the white society, because they were not born into the white race that comes with unearned privileges. McIntosh can further support this point by establishing earned power and conferred privilege. With earned power everybody has a chance at earning privilege, but conferred privilege is only available to certain groups. In this case, the conferred privilege that white people have is “good” hair. African Americans do not fall under the category of conferred privilege, because they are not within the dominant discourse that gives them “good” hair which is an unearned privilege that only white people are born into. African Americans have a “kink,” that is not considered a privilege. Why is a “kink” not considered a privilege? It is not considered a privilege, because the dominant race, white, does not have a “kink.” And that is an example of white privilege. White people refuse to acknowledge that they have this advantage in hair over African Americans, according to McIntosh’s essay. In today’s society it is okay for white to have this white privilege, it is found normal.
James Paul Gee, a literacy professor, wrote “ Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction and What is Literacy?” Gee is examining how literacy studies has developed in linguistics and then incorporates linguistics principles to literacy studies. The main factor to Gee’s literacy is the “Discourse,” which is a concept he sees as more of a way of being,“ forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes , and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes” (542). He explains the meaning of Discourses, the two types of Discourse: Primary and Secondary Discourse, and how they apply to acquisition as opposed to learning situations in social institution such as school or church.
In Gee’s article, his claim is that you are either in a discourse or not, there is no in between. And if you do not belong to a discourse you are considered an outcast, because you do not have “literacy.” Literacy means the mastery over Second Discourse. He describes discourse as an “identity kit” that comes with the correct way of acting, talking, and writing. Gee establishes that are two types of Discourses: Primary Discourse and Secondary Discourse. Primary Discourse is what we first use to make sense of the world and interact with our inmates through social interaction. Secondary Discourse are non-home-based social institutions in the public sphere. In today’s world, the white society is the dominant discourse. They are able to be called the dominant discourse because they have white privileges that set them apart from the rest of the other races. In order to belong to this discourse, you need to be born into it. You are either in or you are not; if you’re not, you are an outsider. Meaning, white people are apart of the dominant discourse while every other minority group is an outsider.
Key to Gates essay is that if you are not white, then you do not fit in with the dominant discourse that come with privileges. Which is Gee’s main point, you are either apart of a discourse or you are not. In Gates’ case, African Americans strived to belong to the dominant discourse, white race, because they had special privileges that allowed them to have “good” hair. African Americans have their own discourse but their discourse was labeled “bad” so they wanted to be apart of the dominant discourse.The kitchen’s purpose in Gates essay is to show that African Americans will never be apart of or fit in with the white society, the dominant Discourse. The Kitchen, the permanent “kink,” will always remind them that they are outsiders. As much as the black society tried to remove their kink they would never belong to the dominant discourse. Mr.Charlie can best be seen as a “pretender,” according to Gee. Yes Mr.Charlie belonged to the black society, but because his skin was fairly light, he used that as an advantage to belong with the white society. He was a “pretender” he would hide his kitchen by going at night to get his “kink” ironed so that he would feel accepted by the dominant discourse.
In 1896, the Louisiana case of Plessy v. Ferguson was taking place. In the U.S Supreme Court case Homer Plessy, an African American, refused to sit in the Jim Crow car on the train. He was arrested, because he broke the “separate but equal” law. The Supreme Court denied his case, that his constitutional rights were being violated. The Court agreed that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between blacks and whites did not conflict with the 13th and 14th Amendments.
Throughout American history, white power-holders, such as the U.S. Supreme Court, have been acting on behalf of the entire white race. The Plessy case goes to show that systemic structure grants privileges to white people and withholds them from others such as, African Americans. The U.S. Supreme Court ignored Plessy from his constitutional privileges, because of the color of his skin. They completely ignored the 14th Amendment that states “ States are forbidden from making or enforcing any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States hostile legislation of the states. Gates can agree that the Plessy decision set the precedent that “separate” facilities for black and whites is constitutional as long as they were “equal.” Plessy has privileges as American, that are stated in the Constitution of the United States, but because of white privilege, Plessy’s privileges were ignored. Gates can agree that this case can defend his point that the white society has white privilege that grants them unearned privileges as the dominant discourse, because they are seen as superior.
White privilege is visible to those who don’t have privilege, but unacknowledged by white people who belong to it. It is seen as normal in the eye of a typical person in America to view the white race as the dominant discourse. Minority groups, such as African Americans will continue to be called outsiders, and strive to become apart of it. Even though it will never happen. White people have the unearned privileged to make African Americans feel inferior and unprivileged.