But why then are there more whites on food stamps and welfare? In todays age one can be what one wants. To say oh I can't do this because of my skin is a cop out.
While that's a correct statistic, it's very misleading.
While there are more white people on welfare, black people are statistically more likely to be on welfare per capita. But there is a really good reason for that. Welfare has nothing to do with race. There is no race of people who are born more likely to want to be on welfare.
The reason black people are more likely to be on welfare is because they are more likely to be born into low income homes. People born into low income homes are more likely to make less money as adults. The reason black people are more likely to be born into low income homes is because their parents/grandparents were denied equal access to economic opportunity and education. And their parents/grandparents were likely 20th+ generation slaves who could be killed if they attempted to even learn to read.
Yes, those things have a long lasting effect that takes generations to correct. The problem we are having right now is that people must actually want to correct it and for the most part, no one who has the power to correct that problem gives a shit, nor are there many particularly good ideas out there to fix the problem.
So the fact that black people are more likely per capita to be on welfare than white people has nothing to do with them being less capable because they are black. Nor does it have a lot to do with white people being racist today (that does happen, and in some places that is the problem, but over all it's not the core issue IMO). Black people are more likely to be on welfare because of the hundreds of years they were denied equal rights and access to opportunity.
And no, that's not an excuse, it's a fact. People born into families where their parents are uneducated and poor are more likely to grow up to be uneducated and poor. That statistic holds up regardless of race. And you only have to go back a couple generations and pretty much every single black person in American with very few exceptions were both uneducated and poor through no fault of their own. That's not a problem that's going to fix itself overnight.