Summary

Kiese Laymon’s grandmother worked from 6:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. at a chicken plant in central Mississippi. Her job was to pull the guts out of thousands of chickens each day. Each morning, Grandmama prepared breakfast and made Laymon take a spoonful of cod liver oil. Laymon was there for the summer. He marveled at how she got so clean and fresh when she was only going to get intensely dirty from chicken guts all day. Grandmama often spoke of the layers to her job. It was a place of “racial and gendered terror” (117), but she still entered the plant wanting to be the best at what she did in the whole state. She had to work hard not only to impress her coworkers or the white shift managers but also to inspire the other hardworking black...