TY - JOUR
T1 - Willing but Unable
T2 - Reassessing the Relationship between Racial Group Consciousness and Black Political Participation
AU - Smith, Jasmine Carrera
AU - Clemons, J. A.R.E.D.
AU - Krishnamurthy, Arvind
AU - Martinez, Miguel
AU - Mclaren, Leann
AU - White, Ismail K.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - In this article, we offer a framework for understanding the role that racial group consciousness (RGC) plays in influencing Black Americans' engagement in costly political action. Attempting to add clarity to decades of inconsistent and at times contradictory findings, we argue that the effect of RGC at inspiring political action among Black Americans is conditional on (1) the relevance of the political activity to achieving a well-recognized racial group outcome and (2) individual capacity to assume the cost of engaging in the activity. Analyzing data from the ANES and two behavioral experiments, we find that RGC exhibits a consistently strong relationship with engagement in low-cost political behavior, regardless of whether the behavior has some explicit group-relevant outcome. When engagement becomes more costly, however, Blacks high in RGC are only willing to assume these costs if the engagement has some clear potential for racial group benefit.
AB - In this article, we offer a framework for understanding the role that racial group consciousness (RGC) plays in influencing Black Americans' engagement in costly political action. Attempting to add clarity to decades of inconsistent and at times contradictory findings, we argue that the effect of RGC at inspiring political action among Black Americans is conditional on (1) the relevance of the political activity to achieving a well-recognized racial group outcome and (2) individual capacity to assume the cost of engaging in the activity. Analyzing data from the ANES and two behavioral experiments, we find that RGC exhibits a consistently strong relationship with engagement in low-cost political behavior, regardless of whether the behavior has some explicit group-relevant outcome. When engagement becomes more costly, however, Blacks high in RGC are only willing to assume these costs if the engagement has some clear potential for racial group benefit.
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U2 - 10.1017/S0003055423000370
DO - 10.1017/S0003055423000370
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85178052726
SN - 0003-0554
JO - American Political Science Review
JF - American Political Science Review
ER -