No, I'm not talking about children making excuses. As you say, children, and plenty of adults too, will find an excuse not to work if they want to. There's always something to blame if you want there to be.

But this is very different from being told, from a young age, that working hard won't get you anywhere. It's very different from being told you're guaranteed to fail. It's very different from being told that you're oppressed.

These ideas seep into people's psychology in a way that leaves them hopeless. At that point it's not an excuse, it's brainwashing.