The Curious Case of Black "Conservatives": Assessing the Validity of the Liberal-Conservative Scale among Black Americans.

This article examines the longstanding puzzle that many Black Americans identify as conservative on surveys despite overwhelmingly supporting the Democratic Party. Using data from the American National Election Studies (ANES), it argues that this mismatch arises because many Black respondents are unfamiliar with the ideological terms "liberal" and "conservative," undermining the validity of the standard liberal-conservative scale for measuring ideology within this group. The study finds that Black respondents who demonstrate greater familiarity with these terms show ideological self-identifications consistent with their partisan preferences, while those less familiar often misapply the labels, producing the observed paradox. These findings challenge prevailing identity-based explanations and highlight the need for caution when using ideological self-identification measures across diverse social groups, suggesting alternative approaches such as policy-based measures to better capture Black political attitudes.