“they are discouraged against reading books or learning because that is “acting white”? “
My 40+ years experience in education suggests it isn’t so much black kids are “discouraged” from reading is that more than half of them just can not read, period.
Their ancestors never developed a written language so it is somewhat presumptuous to believe the people of a geographical area, with relatively pure genetic lines, where written language was never developed, can hit the ground running and pick up all the requisite anatomical necessities in a few generations.
Reading is difficult in all the aboriginal societies in Africa, Australia, the USA and Canada. The same societies which never developed the wheel either. It is much like acting surprised your Beagle does not retrieve ducks well or your Chihuahua is not a pointer. It may not be politically correct but genetics counts.