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Notes -
I largely agree with you here, but at the same time I feel like the degree that Blacks have, or have not, assimilated varies greatly by region.
Edit to Elaborate:
I grew up in the Rustbelt not far from the Mason Dixon Line, and have since lived on the Gulf Coast, in the Deep South, and California, with some short stints (1 - 2 years a piece) in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Horn of Africa sprinkled in between.
Anecdotally, for all the stereotypes of the racist redneck, "Pennsyltucky" and "the Deep South" strike me as far more integrated, and their black populations far more "assimilated", than they are elsewhere. This isn't to say that there isn't casual racism, IME people in plsces like Harrisburg, Biloxi, Gulfport, and New Orleans will drop a "Hard R" into a casual conversation like it's nothing. But at the same time, I don't remember seeing or experiencing proper racial animosity, that is we're going to hurt/screw this person over specifically because of their skin color, until I moved to the ostensibly "progressive" and "anti-racist" California.
I have no data to support this theory, and frankly I would be deeply skeptical of any data provided one way or the other because I assume that any study even remotely adjacent to academia is going to be fruit of the poison tree, but my suspicion is that segregation actually helped in way. Specifically, in that for all the shit-talk and status jockeying, most of the black kids I grew up/worked with had moms, dads, aunties, uncles, grandparents, pastors, etc... who were all present and active in the community. There was an existing tradition/community memory of black-run businesses, black-run schools, black doctors, black lawyers, and so on.
This is in stark contrast to my experience is in California where there seemed to be this default assumption that black = underclass/criminal that no amount of "Hey, he/she is with me" could overcome. The only card to play was seemingly the military one.
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