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We consider the association between racial discrimination and depression in a relatively comprehensive assessment of general social stress. Data for this investigation come from a sample of Miami-Dade County young adults; the present analyses are limited to African American and white non-Hispanic respondents. Findings indicate that perceptions of discrimination are strongly related to psychological distress. Surprisingly, however, these perceptions contribute almost nothing to an understanding of the origins of racial differences in depression. It appears that differences in lifetime adversity and in exposure to recent and chronic stressors capture those variations in personal history and circumstance which are linked to and arise from social disadvantage and which are relevant to mental health. Variations in these more general forms of social stress account for observed racial differences in depressive …