It's not really parents that are the problem, but the society that they've been forced to adapt in. The Civil Rights Movement failed in that minority populations are still more or less trapped in the problem areas of the 'inner city'. There's no way to get out through schooling do to the American system that penalizes poor people and poor areas (so the ruling class afraid of losing power, some fringes even have this view of a white America (Tancredo) where school's are funded by local property taxes (when you live in the ghettos house property values are pathetic). When you live in a poor neighbourhood and I mean really poor (Canada doesn't have these types of neighbourhoods from what I've seen so far) your school gets decredited which means you can't go to university if you somehow made it to graduation. (Universities only accept kids from accredited schools).
Then there's the street culture, the kids growing up probably never had a father past the moment of conception and either mom works 24/7 or has issues, they have no where to turn, but Javier on the corner or Jarrell who become father figures. Kids see joining the gangs as the only way to make something of themselves since the outside world has set up barriers for them. It's a failure of the country that this has happen. Institutionalized racism, ignoring the problems of the city because the affluent white's have left, so cities now focus on trying to get those whites back.
Some kids get lucky and get into the de-seg busing programme where you have to get on a bus at 4am and head off to the white suburbs going to school in an all white neighbourhood and culture. My generation was still segregated from K-12 in the school, both 'sides' distrusted each other (evident during lunch and how the school set up its tiers of smartness you had A, B and C levels A's was the smart kids going to Ivy League, B was your state university folks, and the C group teachers didn't care much about these people, they were destined for McDonald's, this is where the bulk of 'city kids' fell into). My sisters generation has dropped the C level classes as the school finally figured out that what they were doing was racist (I don't believe that, somebody probably sued and the 'best public school' in the area probably didn't want to lose its 'prestige' to the all jewish public high school and rival (that school is even more messed up, they have pure-jewish clubs etc).
Tensions have eased a bit (although as in this fight proves Blacks/Hispanics/Asian gangs fight for turf, these areas of the country are lawless, the ruling power refuses to help these people and haven't for 40 or so years since they 'granted' Civil Rights) with the Hispanic population moving into the white areas, but now with the white population seeing the Hispanics as a threat (When people think of mexicans from where I'm from its not that they hate Mexicans taking their jobs (some do) a lot of it is a power struggle, when the average white voter who votes on immigration issues they see Anna Maria and Eduardo the young couple with with a baby on the way who are their next door neighbours and say "oh no, they're going to elect Hugo Chavez's of the world." (Same thing happened to the Germans and Japanese, Italians and Catholics) The 'illegals' have become the new black in some suburbs pre civil rights era. So to be Hispanic in my neighbourhood and other suburbs in Middle America is like living in the underground railroad in the Civil War. (there's the generalization that now exists that is extremely annoying amongst my mexican friends, when someone hears spanish being spoken = they must be illegal)
You've got to hide yourself since towns near me have inacted no illegals policies banning the illegal's kids (who happen to be American citizens, they were born in the U.S.) from going to school, having a job, driving a car, and living in the town. This is classic America, majority has always been afraid of immigrants. It happened to my family, Asian immigrants, Irish, Germans, Italians, Jews anyone who is seen as a threat the ruling class enacts laws to protect them from losing power.
Anyway all this goes together, this isn't just about parents, good parents can't fix institutionalized societal problems.
