While Black people have long been the victims of discriminatory policies, institutional racism and violence, they have every reason to be the least optimistic people in America. However, they are not, according to a recent study. Research suggests that generally, poor Black people are more optimistic than their poor white counterparts. A study from Carol Graham at the Brookings Institution revealed that as “deaths of despair” among uneducated white Americans has been enough to drive the U.S. life expectancy downward, poor Black Americans are the most optimistic — even slightly more optimistic than rich Black people. Further, poor Black people are three times more likely to be more optimistic than poor white people. Black and Latino people are also more likely to say their lives are better than those of their parents. This does not discount the stress and challenges that visit the Black community, but this stark difference across racial groups in poverty is instructive.