Stress exposure is linked to worse mental and physical health and is differentially distributed by race/ethnicity, a major pathway linking race/ethnicity to health disparities. Most evaluations, however, of race/ethnic differences in stress exposure fail to consider differences in chronic stress exposure as well as the subjective appraisals of these exposures. We examine racial/ethnic differences in the number of reported chronic stressors and their appraised stressfulness. Data come from 6,298 adults age 54+ from the psychosocial subsample of the 2006 Health and Retirement Study. Results from regression models show that older blacks and Hispanics report more chronic stress exposure than whites but, on average, appraise these stressors as less upsetting after adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Importantly, older blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately burdened by ongoing financial strain and housing problems at about double the rate of older whites. Yet, blacks are less upset than whites across every domain of chronic stress exposure: health, financial, residential, relationship and caregiving. For Hispanics, only ongoing relationship strain is considered less upsetting relative to whites. The stress experience consists of both exposure and appraisal and there are conflicting race/ethnic differences across these measures. This distinction between exposure and appraisal based measures of stress shed light on important pathways that may differentially contribute to physical and mental health disparities among these groups.