You can then post an answer or counter an answer that has already been posted. Please read the guidelines for answering questions before making a posting. I have a personal and professional goal of learning as much as possible about ethnic diversity. I work in Human Resources in a fairly diverse small company. But I'm afraid to approach one of my co-workers because I don't know if I'll be understood.
Black people understand white people far better than vice versa.
What you want to learn can only be learned in an authentic context, through real black friends, and I think it's entirely justified that you will have to prove yourself. The great gift of being part of an outsider culture is that you know authenticity and inauthenticity when you see them. For example, it's my impression that people of many ethnicities find black men attractive but black women less so, and that the opposite is true with Asians. In our stereotypic nomenclature, demure behavior, small stature, fine features and smooth bodies are viewed as feminine ideals, and Asian people are stereotypically seen as conforming to that ideal. Similarly, black people are seen as big, strong, aggressive - the male stereotypes.