Using an attributional framework, the study examined college students' (N=529) expectations of their future economic outcomes and the role they perceived that discrimination would play in determining these outcomes. Expectancies for self, locus of causality for outcomes, self-esteem, locus of causality for failure, locus of causality for success, academic motivation, and group activism were measured; an ANOVA was conducted. Results are presented and discussed. It was found that early in college African Americans have higher expectancies than other students, but that these expectancies decline during college. At the same time that expectancies decline, African Americans' self-esteem does not decline. There is a dissociation, such that self-esteem is less related to expectancies for Black than for White students. The decline can be accounted for by African Americans' increasing external attributions for their future outcomes: their pessimism about being able to overcome the barriers faced by African Americans. Further analyses show that when these external attributions for failure are combined with internal attributions for success, they are associated with high achievement motivation and high group activism. (EMK)