THE NEW BLACK CONSERVATIVE: RHETORIC OR REALITY?

coln There is [a] class of [black] people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. Booker T. Washington1 In recent years there has been growing speculation regarding an increase in the number of African Americans identifying themselves as conservatives. Much of this speculation has been heightened by the increase in the number of African American elites who identify themselves as conservatives. This list includes icons like Clarence Thomas, J.C. Watts, Alan Keyes and Ward Connerly, to name a few. Despite the increase in the number of African American elites who identify themselves as conser-vatives, there has been a dearth of systematic analyses to determine if this phenom-enon has trickled down to the masses. The new breed of African American conservatives tends to reject government pro-grams designed to benefit African Americans, while endorsing self-help types o