The paper examines culture as an influential variable in the shaping of the value system within the sturcture of black families specifically those with mentally retarded members. Typical negative views of the black culture included such characteristics as matriarchal, unstable, and pathological. More recent views have focused on strengths, including strong kinship bonds, strong work orientation, and adaptability of family roles. Two strengths, the extended family or kinship network and the religious orientation, are examined in an analysis of how black families cope with retardation. Ethnographic studies focusing on child-rearing practices associated with black families of mentally retarded persons are reviewed, and results point to identifiable structural characteristics, including the role of the mother and support of the grandparents as essential elements of the social support network and the importance of the church as a source of respite care and mainstreamed experiences. (CL)