I can understand where you are coming from. It truly is difficult for most to understand how the lower class thinks, I for one am very ignorant on the subject, with only slight first hand experience. But they, not all of course, do function with a different mind set than middle and upper class Americans.
All your life you've been told that you can be whatever you want to be and the world is at your fingertips. Imagine being told the exact opposite for all your life, with an uptight white dude or a rich black dude saying you can achieve once a year. That'll fuck with someone's psyche.