oski003 said:
My roommate at Berkeley was a first generation Vietnamese American woman whose parents immigrated to the USA with nothing but clothes on their backs in the 70's. I feel that some cultures seek to fight the system while others seek to find ways to thrive in it. Obviously, there are outliers.
I'm not sure I buy into any comparison between groups that voluntarily immigrated within the last few decades and a group that descended from slaves brought here hundreds of years ago but I find it curious that you bring up your Vietnamese roommate. For a variety of reasons, Vietnamese have struggled both with the model minority cultural baggage as well as the challenges for refugees trying to succeed in the US. Not only is the model minority baggage
difficult for Asians, but it's a disservice to other minorities as well.
I also question the notion that "culture" is some voluntary group decision that can be remedied by comparing to other successful groups or individuals. I know a very successful African American gentleman (without getting into details, he's among the wealthiest in the country). He's never had a cultural problem but he did have to overcome institutional racism to achieve success.
I think that some people just like to blame victims of racism by claiming that their real problems stem from culture, as if that culture (whatever it is people mean by that when claiming a group of people is responsible for its own relative success or failure as a group) was developed in a vacuum from racism present in our society.