I'm not saying they don't have a choice to leave the ghetto, but being born there, growing up there and living there is a life that we have no idea of. It's not like middle class white kids are growing up in well rounded families and ending up in the same ghettos, it's a viscous cycle that society helped to create.
It would be naive to say that they are born with the same opportunity / privilege as we were. Sure they have options, but I'm sure that you would be in the same place as them if you grew up in the same atmosphere.