ANGER OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE SOUTH

Abstract

In this existential-phenomenological investigation middle-class African American women (n = 9) in the Southern United States were interviewed about their experience of anger in daily life. The purpose of the study was to examine what African American women's anger is about, what it means, and how it is experienced. Transcribed interviews were analyzed using a hermeneutic process. The thematic structure of African American women's anger comprises three main elements that stand out as figural: power, control, and respect. These figural elements can be understood only when seen against the ground of a racist Southern culture that produces pervasive mistrust. These findings are of importance to clinicians, who cannot deliver culturally competent interventions to African American female clients without a clear understanding of the complexity and meaning of their anger experience.