Cool

Black people have always been cool. It has not always been cool to be Black.
During slavery, it was not cool to be Black. In the South, it's not always cool to be Black. Driving a Benz in South Orange County and getting a "DWB", it's not cool to be Black. Watching the news in a room full of White people as another gang shooting, armed robbery, or other violent crime gets covered [and always with a toothless (or having many gold "teefes"), under-educated and poorly spoken person being interviewed], it's embarrassing to be Black. Even though I did not commit the crime, I feel a sense of relief when the perpetrator isn't Black.
I just finished watching "Iron Man" with one of my little cousins. It's not a terrible film, in fact - it's pretty good. The final credits were interrupted by a cameo of Samuel Leroy Jackson as "Nick Fury".
The thing about Sam is that - he's ALWAYS cool. Will Smith may be a bigger movie star, but no actor has a higher total gross box office than Sam. Terrence Howard may be the "in" Black actor for the moment - but Sam has been cool longer than many movie goers have been alive. Lawrence Fishburn has a litany of stellar performances and was even "cool" in; "Apocalypse Now", "The Matrix"and "Deep Cover", but Sam was more cool as the townie hanging out at KFC to Fishburn's idealistic student in "School Daze".
Most people love Black culture, whether they know it or not. The Beatles were just American soul music re-packaged in the form of four young lads from Liverpool. "Elvis...was a hero to most, but he never meant ish to me...' , says Chuck D. Elvis was hugely influenced by the American Black Gospel and Soul music of his times. Rock and Roll music was the bastard child of Country & Western and R&B. It's only natural for Rap (as well as Punk) to have been the bastard child of Rock. Neither genre would even be claimed by the mainstream Rock establishment until it had achieved a certain measure of success. Listen to old school Rap. Almost all of the samples and music are Rock. From Cab Calloway to Lil' Wayne, Black culture has always influenced popular American culture. Brittany, Christina and Pink all are more R&B than Rock. Don't even get me started on Justin Timberlake.
Ask any kid who their favorite athlete is and chances are that the person mentioned is Black. Micheal Schumaucker may have made more money than Tiger or Jordan some years, but who would list him as their favorite athlete?
Aside from sports and entertainment, the most obvious affectation of Black culture seems to be outwardly gay males. The stereotypical gay male sounds more like a Black "hood-rat" than he would Will of "Will and Grace". Both groups come across as "Drama Queens" to me.
Obama's fist-pound made every evening news broadcast. All of a sudden, all of the high-fiving middle-aged men wanted to be able to properly perform a fist-pound.
Beyoncee' came to the rescue of every callipygian woman in America - when suddenly, it was okay to have a nice "B'dunk-a-dunk" (even to know what this phrase means).
Every light-skinned Black in America is a by-product of someone somewhere at sometime liking a bit of that "Brown-Suga'".
Back to Sam - Whether playing "Jules Winnfield" in Pulp Fiction, "Lucious Best a.k.a. Frozone" in The Incredibles, "Dr Mister Senor Love Daddy" in Do The Right Thing or even the crack-head "Gator Purify" in Jungle Fever - Sam (like Black people) was (is) always C-O-O-L.