For many students of color in the United States, the identification, assessment and nurturance of giftedness are complicated by limited opportunities to learn, psychological and social pressures, and racial and ethnic discrimination. One of the most pernicious expressions of these complicating factors is the persistent though unacknowledged notion of intellectual inferiority. Unlike most of their European American and Asian American peers, Black and other ethnic minority gifted youth are confronted with the potential for academic failure that defies predictions based on demonstrated ability and even trumps expectations of high achievement. To the extent that a significant number of students of color in college, particularly Black males, perform well below their tested abilities, as research on the predictive value of the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) attests (Bridgeman, McCamley-Jenkins, & Ervin, 2000; Young, 2001), it is incumbent on researchers and practitioners to find effective means to nurture the intellective development of students of color with exceptional academic ability.