Baby's Future?

Yesterday I saw an interesting a documentary on America's "failed" drug war called The House I Live In. It discusses how drugs are represented in our society, and how race and class play a role in arrests for the War on Drugs. One thing that stuck out to me was something Harvard professor William Julius Wilson said. He claimed noticing a sad reality in our country, that if one were to walk through the halls of a hospital and pass by new born babies, one could determine each baby's future just by knowing their race and class.
According to American ideals, we can be as successful as we want to be. We can move up in social class with enough hard work and determination, right? Well, not according to Wilson's claim. He seems to believe that it is actually very hard for a poor minority baby to rise above the violence and lack of education, to succeed in the same way as say a wealthy white baby. Unfortunately, it seems that when I thought about it further, Wilson's claim seemed to be true. When we hear about a poor African American, who grew up in a low income neighborhood, rising above it and becoming successful, we think it to be an amazing feat. "Wow! He was a really remarkable person!" Or, "wow! Oprah is an inspiration for overcoming such a difficult situation."
While I believe that it is important to recognize these accomplishments, should we really be that surprised that this kind of thing can happen? Don't American ideals tell us that no matter where we start, we can end up anywhere? So why are these accomplishments so rare.
And although while walking past hundreds of babies at a hospital you may see the next Oprah, will the other babies all just become another high school drop out or an imprisoned drug dealer?