On Anger

Hezekiah draws upon Womanism and Black Feminism in this poem. Womanism is a term created by Alice Walker; it is a restructuring or refutation of (white) feminism to include the racial culture of Black women in analysis of power and privilege. Walker says, “Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.” The roots of Black Feminism can be traced back to Sojourner Truth and Francis Harper, but it was named and flourished in the Civil Rights Movement era with advocates such as Ella Baker and Mary Ann Weathers. Black Feminism also takes a more intersectional approach than white feminism, but with a slightly broader scope than Womanism. While white feminism generally focuses on issues related to reproduction and biological concerns, Black Feminism and Womanism examine how oppression is multi-faceted.

In Hezekiah’s poem, the therapist serves as a representative of white feminism while the speaker responds from a Womanist or Black Feminist perspective. The emotion of anger, specifically righteous anger, is given a more positive connotation in Black Feminism, while white feminism often uncritically advocates for an approach rooted in mild, orderly protest. The therapist asking the speaker to let go of her anger comes from a perspective that anger is damaging to the psyche.

Positive connotations of anger can also be understood through the lens of the Black Power Movement. Black Power, a term coined by Richard Wright and popularized by Stokely Carmichael, referred to creating self-sufficiency and safety in Black communities. This movement utilized angry rhetoric to highlight concerns about unnecessary deaths of Black people, and it can be seen as the precursor to the Black Lives Matter Movement. For instance, it was the Black Power Movement that created the iconic raised Black fist that is still in use today. The fist is a symbol of strength created out of righteous anger about injustice.

Hezekiah’s poem opens with the stereotype of the Angry Black Woman, which has negatively impacted psychological practices. Part of the formation of this stereotype is connected to the negative media portrayal of the Black Power Movement and its famous Black Panthers. While the Black Panthers were involved in many safety-related activities, such as getting a stoplight installed at a dangerous intersection in Oakland (a city where Hezekiah lived for several years), it is often believed to be an incredibly violent organization. Women involved with Black Power activism were part of the association of anger with violence. However, anger was, in the majority of Black Power actions, the impetus for positive change.