> ..."here are the institutional and systemic barriers that are present -- if you want to understand the present situation and how to move forward you must understand them"
I don't want to put words into GP's reply to you, so this is purely my interpretation of what they were saying. The standard go-to retort by advocates of black American equality when presented with examples of minority community success stories is, "So? Blacks in America have had to contend with 400 years of systemic slavery and discrimination!" The position of your argument, and others like it, is we have to "study" the barriers, we must "understand" them before we can make progress against them.
My counter-thesis is that while it is important to be cognizant of barriers, what I call "dinner table change" (the kind of changes that bring dinner to your family's table that night) comes most effectively through power, and power accrues most effectively to those minority communities who organize together culturally, socially, and economically. They work around the barriers, and undermine them over time by obsoleting them, turning them into anachronisms. There is one minority community that has powerfully proven this approach works. But it takes generations of time, and that is an unsatisfactory answer in today's climate.
I have in mind a community that endured not only slavery, but systemic discrimination for not hundreds, but thousands of years. And they made lemonade out of their sour position. The Jewish community. And many minority or disenfranchised communities can learn from the lessons Jews iterated through, found and practiced workable strategies through the millennia.
These aren't just lessons for ethnic minorities, either. The recognition of wealth inequality for example, can bind together people under that common cause into their own minority community. It is difficult to feel satisfaction of progress from signing petitions, voting, or politically participating to advocate for changes in laws, policies, and attitudes. Those activities still must be carried out, but expecting everyone who cares about such change to only channel their efforts in such manners is unrealistic. There is immense satisfaction however at a small and daily level, when for example a local minority small business serving a minority community notches up another satisfied customer.
I know there are many criticisms to this insular, tribalistic advocacy. Our outlook should be more inclusively expansive. We are better than what I am talking about. But there comes a time when the concerns of tactical survival mount to the point that it is better to acknowledge the mainstream system has failed a specific constituency (for now, hopefully), than to sacrifice the well-being of one's family, loved ones, and dear friends upon the altars of ideologies and "The Should".