Ethnic consciousness and its relationship to conservatism and blame among African Americans

Ethnic consciousness is "a set of political beliefs and action orientations arising out of the awareness of similarity" (Gurin, Miller, & Gurin, 1980, p. 30). We suggest that these beliefs relate to political values and views among African Americans. Correlational data revealed that ethnic conscious ness is negatively correlated with conservative values. Experimental data r evealed that students high in ethnic consciousness blamed a White firm for the termination of an African American employee more than a Black firm fbr terminating a European American employee. Those low in ethnic consciousness did not discriminate between the Black firm versus the White firm. Conscio usness may operate as a means of connecting ethnic identity and political v iews.