During the last 10-15 years, there has been a burgeoning interest in ethnicity as a variable in research on objective personality assessment, particularly with respect to black-white differences. Racial differences in responses to items on the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) were investigated to identify nonpathological differences between blacks and whites. Black and white men and women (N=748) completed the CPI. On the average, there were significant differences for 34% of the items in each of the 18 scales. Current data indicate that blacks may be more cynical, less anxious, and more compulsive than whites. The other factors extend at the dimensionability of black-white differences, with the lower degree of social extraversion among blacks perhaps being the more important. Indications are that some scales of the CPI are more subject to the influence of ethnicity than others, with somewhat greater effects present for females. New item sets for measuring blacks should be developed as well as separate norms for various ethnic groups. (Author/KMF)