Eat
in the Kitchen (Present)
...they send
me to eat in the kitchen
when company
comes...
The usage of the phrase, they send me to eat in the kitchen when company
comes, is referring to the present (when Langston
Hughes wrote this poem). The present day of
the 1920's, when black people (like Hughes) were not allowed the same rights
as white people. This phrase is saying that a black person's white master
or owner sends him to eat in the kitchen when company comes, as black people
were thought to be inferior and uneducated. The white owner was somewhat
embarrassed if company came and they saw that he shared his table with
a black person. Hughes is simply stating a statement that helps the reader
to understand what harshness and penalties he faced because he was black.
To lean more
about the author of this poem, Langston Hughes, visit The Academy of American
Poets at
http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=84
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