One more quick point - educational difficulties are strongly correlated with economic status, not race.
It depends on what is meant by "educational difficulties." The opportunity for education is there, the problem is getting poorer families interested. Poorer families tend to be more depressed. Education isn't a high priority for them. Frequently the poorer children are raised by single parents who either live off welfare and are prone to alcholism, tobacco or drugs, as a way to numb themselves from their condition, or they are raised by a single parent who works crazy hours making minimum wage. In either case, it is difficult for proper parenting to occur when living in those conditions.
Believe it or not, there are plenty of white folks in lower economic strata, and their children struggle as well, too. And they listen to country music. We all know country music really loves God, patriotism, and family.
And I can't think of a single country singer who is a former or even a current street gangster. Most of them do the cowboy/cowgirl thing. Love their family, God, country, hunting, living for themselves, etc. Again, just another economic advantage that religion provides society. But come to think of it, I can't think of a single country singer who has been shot or killed in a gang war. I was born in Alabama and I have family back there, so I know what kind of lax environment it really is. Many people there are poor but they are also content just to live in trailer parks, go hunt their own food, attend church on sundays and work odd jobs in construction.
My relatives in school grew up listening to more Def Leppard and U2 than country music. But the rowdy rednecks aren't influenced by Vince Gill, Travis Tritt and Faith Hill in the way black kids are influenced by 50 cent and Puff Daddy. Unfortunately, poorer white children are more likely to be influenced by the gangster rappers as well. Gangster rap celebrates crime, the debasement of women, the use of drugs, etc. It has gotten to the point where kids but the CDs just so they can read the lyrics to see how "cool" they are. None of these rappers are popular because they can really "sing," instead they are worshipped for the messages they provide the kids. The girls want to be "hos" and the boys want to be "pimps."
We generally don't hear of gang wars in rival trailer parks among dirt road, redneck gangsters. Poorer white kids have a much higher chance of seeing their 20th birthday, than do poorer black kids. Poorer white kids have a much higher chance of being raised by both a father and a mother, than do poorer black kids. But among poorer children who manage to graduate High School, the black student is more likely to get accepted into a college, and what's more, he's more likely to qualify for financial aid. But generally speaking, they don't take advantage of that opportunity.
There are also poorer kids who go to college on full ride atheletic scholarships. And after four years of college, it is embarrassing to hear them speak. Half of the NFL appears illiterate even though most finished college. What teh hell were they doing in school? They were not taking it seriously, they were only using it the same way the school was using them. Sad.
“All knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it...Propositions arrived at by purely logical means are completely empty as regards reality." - Albert Einstein