Here is an interesting article about Jim Crow- or why blacks had a harder time pulling themselves up than people who could go to white schools, with only the occasional shout of 'mick' or 'dago'. Although, it does note the many black colleges and buisnesses that many people forget, instead choosing the focus on the poverty of the race. Focusing on only the bad is a choice. People have very different motives for a such a choice, whether to invoke pity or to say not nice words about someone else.