I'm not surprised you see it this way, but you're missing an enormous tract of middle ground which you'd find both educational and would cure you of some of your most simplistic (not using this word to be prejorative, just being honest) views on the subject.
But anyway, great, if you're aware of those practices then it comes down to this: You’re fine with the fact that these things happened as little as sixty years ago, put black people in America at a clear, measurable and as you say severe disadvantage, and that black people now have to struggle to catch up to where they proved they would be (black wall street for example) if had simply been left alone to live their lives. You think nothing should be done to correct this.
You then compound that by insisting that the disparities we see in outcomes are due to laziness and a victim mentality, rather than acknowledging the effects these policies still have on people's lives. You seem to think that as soon as the Civil and Voting Rights acts were passed, everything reset and the effects of all that discrimination (both financial and psychological) were magically wiped away. As far as I'm concerned, the only way to think something this dumb is if you have a vested interested in doing so.
Anyway, some immigrants succced because (say it with me), I've never claimed that the colour of somebody's skin is a significant barrier to success today. If you come to America with enough money to start a business, or enough education to get a good job, you have every opportunity to thrive regardless of the colour of your skin. The racial disadvantages you face are still there, but they're small. But let's be clear, the majority of first generation immigrants don't thrive in any exceptional way because that money and education is only really prevelant amongst the model minority immigrants (mainly wealthy immigrants from Korea, Japan and China) or tech workers from India. But a nice average $60,000 a year or so family income? Yep, many people can achieve that today if they start with a clean slate.
As for why some measures of advancement are slowing, there are a number of reasons. As Sowell points out, welfare programs in particular have been disastrous for the black community. Also, the "war on drugs" disproportionately targeted black people (whilst ignoring the addiction problems they faced) and led to generations of black men (primary earners) serving long sentences in prison under the three strike rule for minor offences. This is true of the prison system in general. This also is in part to blame for the rates of absent fathers which is a well accepted predictor of poor outcomes for children.
Did these black men choose to commit crimes that landed them in jail? Yes. Did they receive harsher sentencing for those crimes? Yes. Did they have fewer options than their white counterparts? Yes. All of these things can be true simultaneously. Let's say it one more time: Racism isn't the only factor, but it is a factor.
Despite this, the wealth gap between black and white people was actually shrinking until the recession in 2008 where black people were shown to be fired sooner and rehired more slowly. There are tens of other factors I could quote but I won't because you're not interested in any of them.
You've admitted that you'll only be happy if I tell you that racism isn't a factor in outcomes at all. But that's not true. So we're stuck. The idea that racism only manifests in overt physical or verbal attacks, or in the rare people who refuse to hire a n****r at their company, is a hopelessly simplistic view of racism's impact and utterly fails to recognise the scope of the injustice that was still being perpetrated on black people in America less than sixty years ago. You pay lip service to how horrific the treatment of black people was in very recent history, but in the same breath you deny that that treatment has any knock on effect today. I just can't wrap my head around the double-think that this requires.
Anyway, that's it. This is as hard as I'm willing to work to convince you. I'd love to know why you find trying to convince black people that racism is all in their imagination to be such fun (seriously, your comment history is a little disturbing). But this really isn't fun, or productive, or useful in any way to me. So let's just agree to disagree. I'll carry on labouring under the delusion that racism affects black people's lives, and you can find another black person to "challenge" about racism. Deal?
