Although conservative politics may be in vogue in the rest of the nation, many students say liberalism is still the only acceptable ideology in many minority camps.

If you are black and "don't live in the Quad and you are conservative," says Foster, a Lowell House resident, "then you must be a sell-out."

Some students say it is easy to feel particularly alienated because they are, effectively, minorities within their minority groups.

"The ultra conservatives say I'm not a conservative and many liberal minorities say I'm not doing justice to being a minority," says Williams.

Whose Ideology is It?

Boston University's Glenn Loury, an economics professor and prominent black conservative, says he agrees with many conservative minority students that political ideals and race are two different things.

"Political ideology should not be a function of race," Loury wrote in an e-mail response to an inquiry from The Crimson. "For this reason the whole notion of 'black conservative' is suspect to me."

Loury, who was a professor in Harvard's Afro-American Studies Department and at the Kennedy School of Government from 1982 to 1991, says ethnic minorities should not feel pressured to align themselves with any specific political group.

Davis J. Wang '96, who is Asian-American, says the term "minorities" encompasses a diverse group of people who should not be pigeonholed into any particular political camp.

"It is somewhat narrow minded to think that minorities can hold one viewpoint," Wang says. "One of the standards by which the assimilations and integration of minorities into society can be measured is how diverse their views are."

Changing Conservatives

But many Harvard minority students say pressure to voice liberal political views is only half of the problem.

They say getting fellow conservatives to accept them can be almost as problematic as getting fellow minorities to accept their political views.

Williams says part of the reason she helped create the politically moderate Republican Alliance was because she was "made to feel unwelcome" in other conservative organizations like the right-wing Harvard Republican Club. Williams is one of approximately five minority students affiliated with the 50-member alliance.

Foster says she quit the Salient after her first year in part because the staff, comprised mostly of white males, often took "ultra-conservative" stances on social issues, including race relations.