Every racial, ethic group (Irish, Chinese, Japanese, Latins, etc) can point to some past oppression. The thing is, successful ethic groups choose to focus on the future and NOT the past. In fact, I know of no white people that identify with skin color, though they may refer to their ethnic heritage - This always puzzles me.
Though I do know some African American kids that have come from rough inner city backgrounds and have successfully made it in the professional world. All of them tell me the secret to their success was 'hard work' and they usually had a good mom pushing them to stay in school.