I'll add the info to OP. I was born and raised in montreal, and actually had a nanny help raise me up until the age of 4 to help my mum who had 6 kids and raised us mostly alone while my father was away running his business in another city.

I had 3 best friends that were black or part black. 1 in kindergarden (haitian), 1 in primary school (very close friend, half vincentian, half québécois), 1 in my late years of college (haitian).

I'm white. So my visions of black people have been blurred in a way because of what other white people told me when I was growing up. Now, I don't think a race really makes or brakes your personality, but, in my school I have noticed that many of the black people could care less about education or discipline.
This is just my school and it is just what I have seen, so take it as you like.
I've had MANY black friends and all of them were quite nice and they did care about education/obedience. But from the general community of blacks in my school I would say that's not very common.

I hate that I view the black community in my school as this because it makes me feel racist, when I'm not. But really, it's what they do and what I see. I can't change that. (I would like to though.)

And to answer your last question; I think rap stars are a bad influence on any race.

What an interesting topic, can't speak about American society but I can tell you as a Black person in the UK rascism towards black people has died down significantly then years ago. Imo over here racism towards any ethnic group is a result of three things first the environment around you (a person's upbringing, who's around you as you grow up etc...), your persona (mentality and character) and perception of the world around you (media, news and so on). I grew up in a very mixed area literally most ethnic groups were around me so I'm not as privy to the cultures of other ethnic groups as being ignorant to them certainly is a pivotal factor in racism.

Racism goes in all directions and I feel one of the reasons in the UK it's frowned upon heavily and actively stamped out is because ethnic groups are in more contact with each other and the UK is very multicultural, people have numerous friends across all boards, I'm not sure how things are in the US or how integrated areas with multiple ethnic groups are in the US society. I've been the subject of racial abuse several times in my life as racial abuse seems to be the route certain people in the world want to take to hurt others and a number of occasions it's not even that you know the person or even interact with them they just see your skin colour and make up their own mind. Right now most racism is geared toward people of Arab descent or anyone who remotely resembles them because of prats like Abu Hamza who preach hate and give the perception to anyone who's not knowledgeable about Islam that anyone Islamic is out to get them.

Another large factor in squashing racism is the fear of being reprimanded, you only have to look at sites like Youtube where racist comments will pop up to any video with an ethnic person in it.

Well no offense but don't look too far  ;)  I personnaly think it's more you than anything else then. 

Just because there are bad rappers and most of them are black people doesn't mean black people are like them. It would be like saying that during their life white people would shoot in schools because most shooters in schools are white... anyway maybe you need to differentiate people more about who they are more than their skin color. That stigma you're talking about doesn't exists in everyone, it exists in one's mind and only one's mind can make it go away.

I noticed how black people seem to be much more integrated in the british films I watch. They have the same manners as the white british most of the time, whereas in american movies, they are always different somehow (either they have an attitude or they speak differently, or they have graver voices).

Im not racist, but im a "culturalist"
i just cant stand other cultures that dont fall under my view of the world, and i would like them to disappear.

If you noticed in OP, I mentioned not wanting to be that way.

Yeah I agree and mind if I add to the whole Rapper debate, the have been loads of rappers who have shunned the whole ghetto and guns thing but are not mainstream because the bad stereotype seems to sell to the majority of people, an example is Common or Masta Ace who just tells stories using his rhymes. A lot of these non gangsta style rappers are actually much more skilled then the mainstream lot and have been around since the 80s.

Who ya gonna call?

It's pretty much because multi-ethnic culture is pretty much integrated into the overall British culture, we may have a few areas here and there which have one main ethnic group but overall we're in close contact and this has had an impact on the younger generations growing. We all go to the same schools, live in the same neighbourhoods and so on, Britain is a small place with 65m plus people and the Government can't afford to have poor ghetto like areas they want every area doing well off so they can tax us to death and the more cultures the better for them as new cultures bring new opportunities as they bring their cuisine and talents. As a result everyone pretty much has access to the same oppotunities.

It's why black, white, arab, east asian and so over here all speak the same over here even down to regional accents, don't know how things are in the US so I can't say too much but if it's not the same that alone is a powerful factor as not growing up around a certain ethnic group or non at all is a mental hurdle, I know each state acts like it's own unit unlike here where the government define everything so that's another thing in itself.