I am not african-american. I don't really know anything about soul food. I have been putting collards, turnips or mustard greens over split open corn bread & letting the juice run in & eating it my whole life.
Growing up Dad worked as a mechanic. He worked on commission. If you could beat the book you could make great money but if nothing came in you didn't make squat. There were times we ate really well. There were times we lived on pinto beans & cornbread & were grateful to have them. Later on he took a Service Manager job. He didn't make more money than the mechanics but he was salaried. It was steady money.
I still like all of it. If it weren't for beans & cornbread poor people in the South would have died out hundreds of years ago.