Why So Much American Anger?
The recent episodes of now routine American gun violence have sparked discussions of the role of white male anger in it all. This is hardly a brand new strand of analysis, though. Michael Kimmel, director of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook and author of Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era , wrote last November : “Today's Angry White Men look backward, nostalgically at the world they have lost. Some organize politically to restore 'their' country; some descend into madness; others lash out violently at a host of scapegoats. Theirs is a fight to restore, to reclaim more than just what they feel entitled to socially or economically -- it's also to restore their sense of manhood, to reclaim that sense of dominance and power to which they also feel entitled. They don't get mad, they want to get even -- but with whom?” Kimmel admits that: “There are plenty of angry men of color and plenty of angry white wom