So going by your standard. Lyndon B Johnson habitually using the word "N!G@ER" was justified because he signed the Civil Rights Act?
Yes, that makes him significantly better than his contemporaries who also used that word but did not sign legislation that dramatically improved the lives of minorities. Actions matter more than words.
They're not helping minorities, they're buying votes with handouts.
That's how politics works: you give your constituencies policies they desire, and in exchange, they vote to keep you in office so that you may give them more policies that they desire. However, "handouts" don't only come in the form of
money; they also come in the form of
power.
For example: the "handouts" that Republicans promise are tax cuts for the rich, military spending for defense contractors, anti-gay legislation and criminalization of abortion for the religious right, and persecution of minorities/immigrants for the white supremacists. Republicans
buy your vote by promising to implement these policies, and they've been doing it since almost exactly the same moment that LBJ decided to start "buying votes" of black people by
passing policies that make their lives better.
By my math you owe LBJ another 146 years worth of votes.
Abe Lincoln
bought many decades of votes for Republicans from black Americans with the "handout" of the 13th Amendment. LBJ
bought them back for the Democrats with the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. If it takes 146 more years for Republicans to decide that they care about winning black votes, then it seems that LBJ made a smart decision.