That is a great question and one that the book speaks about. Some points to consider without going too deep: - Italians and other European communities also fac

That is a great question and one that the book speaks about. Some points to consider without going too deep: - Italians and other European communities also faced with xenophobia and racism. Italians even founded 'the bank of Italy' (which is now BofA) because there were lack of institutions who financed and provided debt to them. Some laws have deliberately pushed to integrate white europeans to 'white american' society. - Blacks had and still have to face systemic ('redlining' districts, 'G.I Bill, 'Civil Rights', etc) and unofficial racism. As a result, Black-owned banks typically face larger cost of debt, have larger liquidity requirements (small deposits and shorter withdraw periods) and more strict mortgage rules. We all know what happened. PS: there is still a lot of poverty traps for other immigrants and minority groups. We are still far away from what needs to be done