I don't even think you can really separate the two. Poverty/discrimination (both historical and current) greatly affect culture, and vice versa.
While I agree that we shouldn't expect Obama to govern just for the benefit of black people, I do feel like he does a certain amount of criticizing black people just for the sake of making white people feel better. I've been a little critical of this in the past.
Some of the his criticisms of the black community (saying black men need to stop being deadbeat dads and whatnot) are things I don't really think he'd say to other groups.
