Literacy rates for African Americans is the worst always due many factors. Study after study shows improvement but still below other ethnic groups in America. Codeine must be talking about the exceptional African Americans who made it big. African Americans do struggle in every sphere due to economic and subtle racial discrimination if not outright discrimination sometimes.
They are the most expelled and suspended students from school in America for minor infractions. And African American girls are the most expelled studies found.
I don't see many black faces in my profession. And the few I see are exceptional. I see other ethnic Africans who are migrants doing better than African Americans.
Atlanta has the most successful black community and they are doing well. But they are not representative of their ethnic group as a measure of success because their number are very small when one looks at the overall picture.
At any rate, blacks perform poorly not because they aren't smart, but because of established and deeply entrenched systems that worked against their improvements as a community. And some of the black attitude towards education isn't helpful to them. Music is no measure of success. It is entertainment, so is sports. The blacks had been fighting for basic dignity in America from the get go. Nothing came easy to them. And they still struggle.
They would have done better if they had a culture like us Somalis. We demonstrably did better than many of them. And those among us Somalis who failed in our youth are the ones who adopted the local culture that looks down on being educated. In some instances, among the black youth, speaking good English is seen as being uncle tom or white etc.
Confluence of many issues cause AAs to struggle.