I have a limited sample size and haven't made a study of it. I can only draw conclusions from what I observed personally. The football obsession in the south really felt like a white culture thing. Most of the administrators and teachers were white, and they were the ones pushing it. But my point was that the academic focus of the educational system does have a significant impact on the students they produce. That system that
I went through up north wanted its kids to go to college and it made that clear from the moment you walked into the building. Everything they did flowed from that, and it made a difference in a million little ways. You can add time to a system if you want to, but if the underlying system is bad, that will be pointless.
Race doesn't figure into it. The kids who had to go through the two southern schools that I attended were victims. We were all victims. I know there are plenty of good schools in the south. My sister got married and settled down in Alabama and made damn sure her kids went to good schools there. Just not the ones I went to. I've been successful in life not because of my time there, but in spite of it.
As for Michael Brown, I saw the story and thought to myself, "There can be no rest, as long as a mother must fear for her child's life every time he leaves the house." More recently I also thought, "There can be no rest as long as a wife must fear for her husband's life every time he puts on his uniform to go out on patrol." I used to think that humanity could outgrow these problems, but my increasingly-cynical view is that the only way humanity's suffering will end is when humanity ends. I still hope humanity proves me wrong. I assume this is because I was also brought up on Disney, and Disney princesses always get their Prince Charming. The rest of us probably aren't getting diddly.