The issue is not so simple.
I work in a lot of schools in the hood.Sure,occasionally a black teen will get teased for"acting like a white boy/girl"but it is usually done in a good natured way,not aimed as a vicious and provocative barb.Most of the black kids I know who are college bound and stay out of"the game"are "shown love"by the other youngsters who are most likely going to fall into the numerous ghetto traps that are out there.
One corollary to the above paragraph is that almost NO black kids who grow up the ghetto want to be isolated from their peer's culture.The same kids who know they have to measure up to "mainstream"standards to be successful in life also have to walk a thin line in not alienating or appearing that they think they are better than their classmates.Some do this tightrope act better than others.
This generation of black teens is probably the LEAST race conscious.Several years ago I sat in the counselor's office waiting for an assignment and a black college student was interviewing Ninth Graders who wished to have a big brother/sister.One of the questions she asked was if the kids preferred someone of their own race or was that not an issue.
All six of the black teens stated without hesitation that race was not an issue.They really just wanted someone,ANYONE,to care about them.
BUMP!
I work from time to time in Boston's great medical-educational complex, the center of which is on the edge of a black neighborhood. At work I have seen young adults who have pulled themselves up and moved out of the ghetto, and others who still live there and find themselves in a sort of bi-cultural bind--they "act white" at their jobs in the hospital, the jobs that are their keys out of Roxbury. But it is to Roxbury that they return at night, and they face the resentment of those who either haven't yet figured out a way to leave, or those who through weakness or pride or hatred would prefer to stay put.
When the cities were burning in the 60s, blacks and whites couldn't talk about this stuff. Now we can and do, and whenever there's anything that can be said to offer these kids encouragement and support, it is my observation that the conversation goes both ways, and no one resents any of it.
I suspect that the "multi-cultural" crowd prefers poverty to hope, so that they can keep their constituents in line.