raise someone's consciousness

present singular third person raises someone's consciousness · participle present raising someone's consciousness · participle past raised someone's consciousness · past raised someone's consciousness

1. To increase a person's awareness of, and often sympathy for, an issue, cause, or condition.

   But assorted pressures, some self-imposed and others societal, raised her consciousness about counting calories.

   1983 March 6, Neil Amdur, “The toll conditioning can take on athletes”, in New York Times

   3 more examples

   She said I had "offended" some of her "little sisters" that didn't understand this all + I said well that they can't be that little if they're in this bar + maybe it'll raise their consciousness a little so they do understand.

   1973 February 26, Lou Sullivan, Diary

   But part of Reagan's self-imposed mandate is to show that his conservatism has a broad reach. That would be easier for Reagan to do if he were accustomed to working closely with blacks, women and others who might raise his consciousness on sensitive issues.

   1982 February 1, Laurence I. Barrett, “The White House Sensitivity Gap”, in Time

   Raised in an Old Left family, I was taught about male chauvinism and thought I knew something about it, but at the beginning of feminism's "Second Wave" in the 1970's, I concluded that I needed to raise my consciousness.

   2005, Jean Fagan Yellin, Harriet Jacobs: A Life, →ISBN, page xv