After looking up culture for 1000th time and then asking this question, I have come to the conclusion that culture is just a list of things that the majority of a group do or are most known for. Culture in my honest opinion is dumb and lame. No offense to anyone whose passionate about that kind of stuff.
The issues that hold us back and move us forward are found in Black Culture, because it has been twisted and influenced by our unfortunate history in the United States we have issues in our culture that work against us and work for us. To say it is dumb and lame really is very superficial in view of the challenges the black community have. Black culture is how we interact within and outside our community and it includes our perception of the world and that of ourselves. And what is hurting us the most is our perception of ourselves, that unfortunately is part of black culture.We have old wounds to heal and those wounds are found in our culture.
Much of our culture was born out of misfortune, look at soul food for example. Slaves got what the white people did not want but slaves found ways to turn intestines, organs and poor meat cuts into tasty food, delicacies. Look at beef briskets, that part of the cow is tough meat but slaves figured out how to make it tender and tasty by slow cooking it with wood, between 210 and 235 degrees, 6 or 7 hours or more, today beef brisket is not cheap meat. Be ready to pay about 35 to nearly 50 bucks for a brisket.
Pork and beef ribs have the same history, its not much meat on ribs but slaves, black people, turned it into delicacies by the methods they created to cook them, go price pork ribs today, they ain't cheap. Business empires were built on ribs because blacks figure out how to turn this undesirable cut of meat into a delicacy.
What about Ox tails, yum yum yum! hardly any meat on them but slaves turned that part of the cow into a serious delicacy, go price Ox tails today, you go broke trying to eat Ox tails on a regular basis.
Beef brisket, Ox tails, beef and pork ribs is just a small example of black food culture that was born out of undesirable food that white people did not want.
Culture reflects who we are and what we become.