But insofar as culture is predicated on race (assuming that is universal), shouldn't you be able to outline some of the characteristics of my very own culture, without even meeting me? The funny thing about Black culture in America is that most of it isn't really Black at all, it's White Southern culture. The slaves were almost completely 100% assimilated to White Southern culture. They adopted White clothing styles, White names, White foods(eg. Creole,Cajun,fried chicken,soul food), White musical styles(they picked up Blues and Jazz from WHITES), White instruments, They adopted the White Southern accent for the most part, they adopted White southern culture in almost every single aspect. This is because Whites and their accompanying culture were the dominant majority throughtout the south and the United States. And culture is a product of race. So Blacks lost all touch with their mother Africa and became assimilated to the dominant local culture and customs for the most part, which were of course White. Culture is a product of race, but if for instance a Black person is raised in a White culture around White people they can assimliate to the culture because it's all they've ever known. But then you put them in say..Jamaica or Africa with all Blacks and they are probably going to revert right back to their essential Africanness, no matter how far removed from it they may be. It is instinctual, because culture is a product of race and ethnicity.     Now with you being.....Dominican right? You wouldn't have been so culturally assimilated to White culture like the American slaves and their descendants had been. Now I don't know much about Dominican culture so you will have to clue me in. Do they still do voodoo down there like in Haiti? Because that stuff scares me. :hide