The problem no one wants to own up to is that throughout American history, Americans have been horrible to African-Americans and really haven't improved all that much. Politically, we have two parties that have shown no incentive (or desire) to really do anything to make a difference, but Democrats try to claim credit for not being as bad towards race as the current batch of Republicans. And Republicans try to convince African-Americans that they have their backs because historically many strides towards civil rights movements have come from the Republican Party (even though through ideological splits the Republican Party of today is the Democrat Party of yesterday (all over issues of civil rights and slavery). This is one situation where a third party would benefit African-Americans in demonstrable ways, but because we have a winner take all system, third parties are completely irrelevant in this country.