1st Edition

Conservatism in the Black Community To the Right and Misunderstood

By Angela K. Lewis Copyright 2013
    184 Pages
    by Routledge

    184 Pages
    by Routledge

    Conservatism in the Black Community examines the contemporary meanings of Black Conservatism and its influence on black political behavior, providing a basis for understanding the impact this phenomenon has on black political behavior. Lewis analyzes conservatism within the black ideological framework, while also explaining the meaning of conservatism in the black community.

    While scholars have argued that the level of support for conservatism among blacks is minimal because conservatism is antithetical to black interest, there are a cadre of conservative political intellectuals and political elites in America. Do their views influence those of the wider Black population? Or does the media merely amplify their voices but with little support? What part of contemporary Black conservatism has found a home in the Tea Party movement?

    Focusing on what conservatism means to Blacks at the grassroots level and in what issue areas Blacks as a whole tend to have more conservative views, this work neither critiques nor praises Black Conservatism. The results of Lewis’s mix of quantitative and qualitative methodologies will be of strong interest to students and scholars of Black politics, Black studies, and political behavior more generally.

    1. Introduction 2. Conservatism in America 3. Black Conservatism 4. Community Support for Conservatism 5. Permanent Interest: Politics of the 21st Century.

    Biography

    Dr. Angela K. Lewis is associate professor of government at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research appears in the National Political Science Review, American Review of Politics, Journal of African American Studies and the International Journal of African Studies. She was also a contributor for Whose Black Politics and The Constitutionalism of American States.

    "Professor Lewis’ work offers a detailed and penetrating analysis of African American conservative ideology and how it differs from mainstream conservatism. More importantly, she offers unique and rarely seen insights and findings about how well the Reagan Administration succeeding in altering African American public opinion and ideology. Hence, her new book is a must read and the place to start understanding the micro-level characteristics and features of African American conservatism. There is no peer at the moment."

    —Hanes Walton Jr., University of Michigan