Okay. And 2/3 of the blacks in this country have done exactly that. The "loser" culture is exactly the same one I see in poor white communities. Bitterness and a negative attitude toward a system that has shut them out and never given them a break. I don't know where you live, but in rural communities of small towns where everyone knows everyone's business and who their daddy's were, who know the last names that spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e, those kids are "branded" from the minute they enter Pre-K.
I was a single mom with a young child (not in a rural area at that time) and at one point had to wear my work uniform to appointments, pretending I'd just gotten out of work, because I literally didn't have any other clothes to wear. I was constantly getting mistaken for an ignorant young mom who knew nothing about childhood nutrition or parenting or vaccinations and got plenty of long lectures every time I interacted with professionals. They judged me on my age and my situation and lumped me with the wrong group. I had read Benjamin Spock's Baby and Child Care from cover to cover three times before my son was born and we never missed a well child check and I put balanced meals on the table three times a day.
It happens. When you grow up in that 'sub culture' of losing, most people take on those attitudes without ever consciously thinking about it. Humans are social animals. That is how we are wired, we absorb our culture from the people around us via observation. But those attitudes, like you said, can be changed. It's not something a poor inner city kid wakes up one day realizing, though. Not unless the seed gets planted from somewhere.
The choice is not always that obvious to people living it, I guess is my point.
