It starts in the home. The majority of the Black middle-class parents are barely in the top 50%. They are the last generation of people with jobs that pay well and don't require a college degree, they are only in the middle class because their incomes are combined, and they don't have the networks needed to put their child ahead. Added to the fact, they will likely not push their child toward academic excellence, but instead mediocrity, the same mediocrity that will get the child through high school, and maybe a Communications degree in a state University, that will lead absolutely no where.
There are a massive number of pitfalls for the children, and they cannot always been supported by their parents if they come across financial hardship in their early 20s, and can't pay off student loans that they accrued trying to gain access to the middle class.