The relationship that minority group members, specifically blacks, have with their racial group has received broad attention. Some literature has focused upon effects of minority status or membership while other work has focused upon either the transformation to a positive social identity or the development of collective commitments to redress societal inequalities. The purpose of the present paper is to draw from data collected in the National Survey of Black Americans in order to explore the nature of and interrelationships among ingroup and intergroup orientations and, particularly, whether collective commitments to the ingroup derive more from ingroup or intergroup aspects of identity. A secondary issue addressed is the relationship of socialization messages to the development of ingroup and outgroup orientations. The analyses suggest that ingroup and outgroup orientations are separate components of identity and that they have different implications for the development of political consciousness. Results of the analyses on the impact of parental socialization messages indicate that ingroup and outgroup socialization messages are differentially related to the various types and patterns of identification and consciousness. These findings have numerous implications for the socialization of group identification, ingroup and outgroup orientations, and political consciousness. (Author/JCD)