On Anger

The thematic heart of this poem is a dialectic, or tension, between two opposing perspectives on the function of anger: one rooted in white psychological practices and the other rooted in radical Black activism. Therapists often teach clients that anger is a harmful, negative emotion that should be purged. The Black Power and Womanist Movements offer a counternarrative: Anger is necessary for the transformation of society into a just and equitable world.

The political is personal for Hezekiah; rather than a discursive treatise on the two perspectives (as the title “On Anger” might imply), she focuses the larger ideas through the lens of a therapy session. The white therapist represents the practice of American psychology, and the speaker offers a metaphorical look at how anger structures an identity based in resistance.

Most modern American psychological practices are rooted in German and Austrian—white—male scholarship. Wilhelm Wundt is considered to be the founder of experimental psychology, and Sigmund Freud is the most famous psychoanalyst. The specific practices used in this poem—creating notecards and letters—can be identified as a form of writing therapy, which was codified by white Texan James Pennebaker in the 1980s.

Additionally, the burning of the speaker’s letters can be connected to bra-burning, a symbol of white feminism.