Right to be angry: Black women's stress appraisals, anger experiences and expressions in the context of gendered racism

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of aspects of gendered racism with stress appraisals and anger experience and expression among Black and African American women. A total of 229 participants completed an online survey that included a demographic questionnaire, the Gendered Racial Microaggressions Scale (GRMS; Lewis & Neville, 2015) and the State Trait Anger Expression Inventory-II (STAXI-2; Spielberger, 1999). It was hypothesized that four aspects of gendered racism would predict stress associated with gendered racism as well as chronic anger, anger suppression, and anger control efforts among Black and African American women. Results indicated that the four aspects of gendered racism, including Assumptions of Beauty and Sexual Objectification, Silenced and Marginalized, Strong Black Woman and Angry Black Woman, when considered together, significantly predicted stress associated with gendered racism (Stress Appraisals) as well as aspects of anger experience, (i.e., Trait Anger), anger expression (i.e., Anger Expression-In and -Out), and anger control efforts (i.e., Anger Control-In and -Out). The Assumptions of Beauty and Sexual Objectification as well as the Silenced and Marginalized aspects of gendered racism were the significant individual predictors of Stress Appraisals of gendered racism. The Angry Black Woman subscale of gendered racism was the only significant individual predictor of Trait Anger, Anger Expression-Out, Anger Control-In, and Anger Control-Out. The Silenced and Marginalized, Strong Black Woman and Angry Black Woman aspects of gendered racism were the significant individual predictors of Anger Expression-In (anger suppression) for this sample of women. The implications of this study were considered and included recommendations for counseling services and advocacy work with Black and African American women.