I will say that it's a valid concern to not know if you can play a POC properly. There's the equally valid concern that people will accuse you of playing one improperly for the most minor of reasons (this is why these days I make a point of stating that I am, indeed, a black person, so that people will stfu and not say I'm playing my race "wrong").
On the one hand, I would rather someone just straight up not play one if they're just gonna pile on a bunch of stereotypes and play a gross caricature. I've seen this shit in Shang's square, back when I used to play Shang. You'd see a black dude walk in and then start dropping all sorts of N words and basically straight up doing some crazy ass text blackface. I didn't even know it was possible to do text blackface, but goddamn that player sure as hell did it.
I do know plenty of white people who play black characters and are respectful and even acknowledge the culture, because they take time to understand it and such. I don't think it's necessarily difficult. Hell, binge watch The Get Down, Luke Cage, and if you really wanna go for extra credit, every season of A Different World starting at season 2 (Entirely ignore season 1 and Bill Cosby's bullshit).
Things to stay away from: Tyler Perry movies, most things by the Wayans Brothers made after like 1995, The Cosby Show (This is not a 100% bad show re: black culture, but it has a tendency to uh, well it's a complicated topic but basically it's not a good reference for authenticity), pro wrestling (it's better now, but let's just play it safe).
Things you may have seen that are a good reference of depth: Fresh Prince, Family Matters, Attack the Block (it's a movie, go watch it, it's important, it has aliens), Living Single, Blackish, Doctor Who (Doctor Who is fantastic with their black characters), Creed (that Rocky movie).
But overall, the reason I suggested The Get Down and Luke Cage is because these shows combined kind of illustrate the overall heart and soul of black culture, in my opinion. They both illustrate positives, problems faced, and negatives in the culture in a way that isn't hamfisted, because there's still a very interesting narrative beyond these things. And also because they're both on Netflix.
Not every black person is going to agree on what is "proper" black culture, because lots of black people come from different backgrounds, but I do believe that there is an essence of the culture that the majority of people would agree is the culture. You don't have to grow up in a neighborhood like Luke Cage's to understand that it's places like this where the essence of the culture comes from (Though I certainly grew up in multiple places like Luke Cage's setting, which is why it hit me as authentic).
Doctor Who, particularly the Martha Jones seasons, are a great example of the fact that you can still pretty authentically write a black person even if you aren't necessarily touching on their culture. While the current season is doing a good job of touching on culture (even if it's British culture), but not making the character secondary to her culture (IE: They treat her like a person rather than just a bag of cultural traits).
The ultimate thing to remember is that every character is, at their core, a person, and we all generally like and do a lot of the same shit. Culture is more something like seasoning that paints our unique experience and perspective. A white woman might cite Sex in the City as her super feminist adult awakening show, a black woman might cite Living Single or Girlfriends. (I've never watched Sex in the City but people always say these are basically the same shows but culture/race swapped)
One last note is, like, while I don't police people's language, because I am very much an advocate of freedom of speech, I do get uncomfortable when people use the N word in RP, regardless of the context. I don't even use the N word irl. But, that's just my two-cents on that.
Have fun! I hope everyone learned something! I hope this was more helpful than the average Cirno post about race.