The specific purpose of the current study is to examine the conditions under which racial identity possibly leads to motivation and academic performance. The more general purpose is to attempt to highlight pathways that may improve African American adolescents' academic resiliency. The study examined the Racial Identity, Perceived Environmental Fit, Academic Motivation, and Academic Performance of 139 African American high school students (81 females, 58 males). The Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI) (Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998), a measure of Perceived Environmental Fit that was created by the author, and the Personal Achievement Goals Scales (Midgley, Maehr, & Urdan, 1993) were used to measure Racial Identity, Perceived Environmental Fit, and Task Goal and Ego Goal Motivation for academic achievement, respectively. It was hypothesized that perceived environmental fit would moderate the relation between racial identity and motivation, such that under conditions of high fit racial identity would predict motivation, particularly for task goals. Subsequently, motivation was expected to predict academic performance. Results demonstrated that though conditions of perceived environmental fit did not moderate the relation between students' racial identity and motivation, racial identity, perceived support, perceived challenges did predict motivational outcomes. Additional statistically significant results provided further evidence for environmental fit (conceptualized and operationalized as perceived support and challenges) and racial identity as viable means of promoting academic resiliency among African American adolescents