I think the quote below, while accurate, needs a qualifier.
Poverty being taken into account, it is still a choice to blame someone else and to not take responsibility for what one could do to improves one’s own lot.
My dad taught me this, quite instructively, back in the mid-70s. He was contacted by some government program to join in a public-private partnership thing to clean up and renovate a lower income area. He took me along, as little boy, on the survey trip with the government officials.
To make a long story short, my Dad after about 10 minutes in the area turned to the group and declined to join the effort. The group was kind of taken aback because they were hoping for his help. It led to a rather philosophical discussion that the government bureaucrats clearly were lost on, but I got it.
My Dad said this (paraphrased), “I do not mind helping people who could use it, but I help people who want to be helped, not those who expect help by basically abdicating things that they should be doing.” He then pointed out that all the yards in the three block area were a total mess. Trash all over the yards etc. The bureaucrats pointed out that people are poor. My Dad asked, “So poverty makes you throw your trash in your own yard? If that is the case, why in the X and Y immigrant neighborhoods, which were just as poor, the yards and the streets are spotless?” The silence waiting for a response was deafening. In short, the government people had lower expectations of basic behavior from the black neighborhoods - that was obvious.
Dad continued, “I see a many cars parked around here. We passed a neighborhood trash drop-off a quarter mile back, why are these people not even putting their trash in their cars and taking it there?” Additionally, “I see lots of dirty porches and window sills. Why are the people not taking the personal effort to at least clean their own front door area and windows? That is not someone else’s responsibility, but they do not even do that.”
Basically, my Dad was pointing out that his money would be wasted because the people did not even care about their own environs to keep it clean, so his money would just go down the drain in a year or less.
He told me that the problem is deeper than money and that this poor area will be there in 50 years because the government thinks that giving people money to do nothing only teaches them to expect someone else to solve their life issues, such as cleaning their own front yard. And the dependency extends from there, i.e., people excuse bad behavior from their neighbors and family, all as an excuse of poverty. (Dad is an advocate that welfare should be attached to basic work responsibility, e.g., give them a job doing something to improve their neighborhood, and parents taking responsibility that their kids go to school etc.)
Then he said, the immigrant neighborhoods, which were just as poor, will be gone in 10 years, just like they always are, as their kids stay in school etc. and their families do not make excuses for anything less.
40+ years later, it is scary how accurate he was. The poor black neighborhood is still there, actually a little bit larger, even though government has spent gods knows how much money. In the other poor neighborhoods, where government spends relatively little money, the poor immigrant kids from Africa, Vietnam, and other places are all gone and 90%+ went to college and grads school. And they did this while attending the exact same crappy public schools.
There is no magic going on here - different behavior begets different results.