I am white, but my father watched TV most of his time and never worked on anything and growing up in such environment so did I. If you grow up in an short-term gratification environment it's much harder to stay with problems long enough to solve them and thus you end up giving up on many hobbies sooner. My father was probably just lazy or resigned due to constant worrying about economic situation but I can imagine that as an immigrant parent with lower job opportunities, language skills and no existing parents to support you, you're less likely to end up with a job you love and you worry about other things than hobbies in spare time. This affects the environment your kids grow up. I am not from US but I can imagine the parents of majority of those kids were in much different situation to others, because (I live abroad) I know that when I was in my home country I would aways had a place to go (my parents) and a support from them and thus more time to look out for a job I like and more support with the kids from them so I could raise kids in much different environment.