I agree with you - lots of reasons people can't intellectually compete - and only one of them is IQ. Like you say - attitude is another. Especially when dealing with teenage boys... Here's some other possibilities: teen boys become whatever turns girls on. White boys do the same - and little white girls have Moms saying things like "what kind of provided will he be - - what does his father do - - what are his plans... " etc. etc. etc. Teen white boys are told by their fathers things about how important it is to finish school, get a good job, etc in order to get the girl. Black culture - the (one that evolved after the 1960's) pushed 'exciting, dangerous, bad boy, 'hood, cool, criminal, drug involved etc.etc. It pushed the message that a 9 to 5 job was boring - that being a member of a gang was exciting. And this worked in a culture overwhelmed with welfare - where the State did the supporting - and boys were for fun. Incentives. Perverse incentives.
Welfare also gave the black culture strong women - and women who could count as two slots for companies dealing with new affirmative action dictates. A black woman would count as 1. a woman and 2. a black. That also undermined the black male. Over the years, incentives created in the sixties have brought us to a place where black women college grads outnumber male college grads. And some of the same incentives that worked against black males is working against white males. White women work cheaper - and companies often give them the job - a twofer - cheaper labor and counts as 1. a woman employee.
Sorry for going on and on - what's your take? What do you think is causing the attitude problem?
“what’s your take? What do you think is causing the attitude problem?”
I don’t know exactly. However, in my personal experiences I do perceive that foreign-born blacks often have a more positive attitude about education and business than American=born blacks. Some kind of defeatist holdover from the Jim Crow era?