A lot of things have changed. There was a time when there was no such thing as "black culture".
George Washington Carver and his contemporaries didn't seek to be separate. They dressed and spoke as any white American did at the time because all they wanted was to be fully included and they worked their butts off for it. Not to mention they faced real open racism from the democrats who hated them.
Sometime between then and now...LBJ happened.
I can’t find it now, but I once read a fascinating article about the employment rate, single mother rate, incarceration rate of the black population before and after the ‘War on Poverty’. It was stunning.
Anyway, we are three generations into this now, and the ‘Don’t be a sucker’ mentality has definitely set in. There are notable exceptions of course...but the people who are these exceptions have to overcome great peer pressure from their own families and friends, before they can go out and achieve.