One Of The Most Desensitized Modern Forms Of Oppression Is The Appropriation Of Black Culture

Like it or not, one of the most desensitized modern forms of oppression is the appropriation of black culture. You heard that right. You see it in our daily lives in magazines, on TV, and even listen to it on the radio. Wherever you look, you cannot escape the reference to, and allusions about black culture. Of course, it’s understandable. Black people are cool and unique. Everything that black people make is awesome.

But consider this scenario. You’re a fifteen-year-old, easy-going and unassuming black kid going to school at a predominantly Caucasian high school. You find out that the only exposure to black culture that your peers usually engage in is when they appear dressed up in chains, hoops, and cornrows, depicting themselves as prisoners during Halloween. A very frightful picture of minorities and criminality. Notwithstanding, we can roll our eyes and turn the other cheek. The fact of the matter is when people perpetuate appropriation of black culture with high social standing, the consequences can sometimes be hard to overlook.

All right, before we can talk about some of the sins of being a culture vulture and appropriating black culture, let us familiarize ourselves with the concept “culture vulture.”

What Is The Definition Of A Culture Vulture

Simply put, a culture vulture is an individual who takes part in a culture but adds no real value to the culture.

There are quite a few people who engage in this, especially when it comes to what is perceived as black culture. They will do what they think will get them “black approval” or get brownie points with black people.

But when it’s all said and done, all they do is propagate a bastardized version of said culture while looking foolish in the process. They lack serious consciousness and the authenticity necessary to truly become a part of the culture and add value. These people are a cancer. They’re really like a vulture. They just come and take what they can take and then leave the remains of whatever they took from.

UrbanDictionary.com’s definition of culture vulture is…

“A Culture Vulture is a practitioner of cultural appropriation. A Culture Vulture is an inauthentic individual who attempts to identify with aspects of another culture and claim it as their own. They do this by mimicking aspects of culture that belong to another group of people and not giving credit where credit is due, which creates the illusion that the aspect of culture they are mimicking is authentic to them. They also do this by claiming that certain aspects of another group of people’s culture originated with them, with no historical proof to back their claims.”

For example, locks or braids are symbols of African culture. African women wear braids to define class, age, marital status, and more. During the slave era, braids played a functional purpose for African women who were badly in need of a hairstyle that would stay for weeks or even longer, and Fulani braids or tight cornrows were the answers. As time went on, braids also became a tool for African women to draw slave maps on top of their heads. It served as an escape weapon out of the reach of the devastating slavery atrocities occurring in the south of the country. In the entire evolutionary history of the braid, its presence and use among Afrikan women face serious threats constantly. Apart from the color of their skin, braids were the only meaningful identity these Afrikan queens had, and slave owners would cut their tresses and satanically shave off their hairs in an attempt to strip them of that identity. So in this modern era, it feels eerily similar when you see white women with the braids of black women and being seen as “exotic.” It is hard to forget when you see celebutantes like Kim Kardashian-West (who some have accused of being a culture vulture) hitting the 2018 MTV TV and Movie Awards red carpet event in a great sleek, black Fulani braids. The same braids that black women have been reduced and ridiculed for having.

Is it not odd when someone like Kim gets magazine covers after appearing at events appropriating black culture and styles black people made famous? Same thing for which they crucified black women? Most likely.

Now, you understand who or what a culture vulture might be, and here are the top five traits inherent in every culture vulture—traits that form concrete reasons why black people need to stop dealing with these characters and move on.

Top 5 Traits of a Culture Vulture

They Are Inauthentic

Yes, most culture vultures create the illusion of originality. They always want others to think that they cherish and embrace diversity. Whereas, they are merely appropriating our culture to further the course of their trade, boost their image, increase their advantage, and fatten their pockets. They are inauthentic and use black stereotypes/image(s) to their benefit.

For example, if Rachael Dolezal were to choose, she probably would never have accepted to be born a black woman. But, due to the benefit involved in being a black woman, Rachael Dolezal is a white woman who decided to live a lie, claiming that she was black for many years. She did that by changing her name from Ms. Rachael Dolezal to Nkechi Diallo, and she was able to receive the sum of $8,846 in public assistance illegally. It wasn’t until her parents exposed her as white in 2015 that she finally admitted to investigators that she was Caucasian.

Growing up, this woman never saw herself as black, but the moment she discovered the financial benefit inherent of being a black person, she pretended to be one, and has lived a lie for many years. Some would say that that is the pretentious life of a culture vulture.

The story of Dolezal also opens a new front in white privilege. It has now gotten to the extent that white people now feel they can at anytime call themselves black when convenient. Just as Ijeoma Oluo aptly put it; “you can have an extremely light skin and still be black, but you can’t be overwhelmingly or even mildly dark-skinned and expect to be treated as white–ever.”

You can see why some people are nothing but pretentious cultural thieves who will assume anything and even perpetuate fraud to achieve their goals. Rachael Dolezal risked 15 years in jail for claiming to be a black woman just to avoid paying her taxes while receiving huge public support services from the government.

Now let’s talk about a group of five white MCs in the early 90’s who in their quest to appropriate black culture called themselves “YBT,” which means “Young Black Teenagers.” Although the group later went their separate ways, Ron Winge, the group’s frontman who call himself DJ Kamron, explained that the “B” in YBT means the culture of hip hop (rap music originated by black people) covering every creed and race. And since then, DJ Kamron has mainly been successful in the world of hip-hop. With songs like “I’m Proud To Be Black,” YBT marketed themselves by ultimately paying respect to black culture, and the media went crazy. While they got the backlash from critics and the press, the fact remains that they gained success and notoriety by appropriating hip hop culture, which we all know is black culture. Should black people continue to focus on this and not move on? No matter what they try to do, the people who perpetuate fraudulence will always remain who they are. Pretense can’t change it.

They Are Obnoxious

One other character trait that defines a culture vulture is that they are very obnoxious.  The behavior of B-Rad in the movie “Malibu’s Most Wanted” perfectly showed how a privileged white boy was being a culture vulture. Lord Jamar was right when he said that white people are “guests” in hip-hop. While some white people will have a genuine respect for the culture, there are others who feel the need to put on a “costume” and portray an outrageous caricature of what they see as “black.” They truly think that black represents violence, crime, drugs and poverty. You can see some of that in Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul’s “Breaking Bad” character), the “wigger,” Young Black Teenagers, etc., depicting black culture in exaggerated ways. These days, white middle-class kids get acclimated to rap music by adopting black street styles— the same people they waste no time to bash and abuse racially.

They make light of negative black stereotypes. As if that isn’t enough, they have taken their outrageous acts to another level. White male culture vultures now think they can freely say and do just anything around black people with reckless impunity. Basically they like to troll. Maybe it’s as a result of being able to have sex with black women or the black culture they have embraced or mimicked, so they think they are qualified experts on “the Negro.” Seriously, these guys are feverishly goofy and need to be exposed for their trolling, especially when they deploy their white privilege to target black women. We also have to point out some of the white homosexual males out there who have no problem putting on their best black female rendition. We’re talking negative black female stereotypes. They might not go 100% Shanaynay, but the way they act is still really buffoonish.

They Are Apathetic

Impassiveness is another trait that defines culture vultures in America and abroad. They generally do not care about black issues.  While they will religiously appropriate black culture to expand their portfolio, they will quickly turn their eyes away from serious issues that affect black people in general. Hence, you don’t see any of these people joining hands to protest against police brutalization of black people. You don’t hear them talk about nor support the discourse on the enormous social inequality that put black people below the wealth ladder. You really don’t see any effort on their part to help dismantle the system of white supremacy to replace it with a system of justice. Why would they when they benefit from a system of white supremacy. While culture vultures’ level of indifference is appalling, it’s no surprise that they tend to trivialize the plight of black people even without the slightest feeling of self-consciousness.

When it comes to black issues, and people are being told “black lives matter,” they respond with “all lives matter.” That shows they don’t actually care, and will never care about what troubles black people in general. Culture vultures’ impassiveness also implies that black people should just continue to take abuse and simply “get over it.” This can be a common sense of physical safety, adequate funding, trust and comfort with law enforcement, appreciation and respect for black spaces like neighborhoods and schools, solid rights, the right venues to project our criticisms and stance on critical issues without subjecting our race to a trial due to it.

And just when you think that’s the height of apathy, typical black activities like our music, our dances, our hairstyles, our slangs, and our clothing are stolen, whitewashed, and rebranded for public consumption. That’s what they do without caring, whether you are dying or not. They appear nice while doing all of that, but when issues arise, they feign ignorance, and that’s if only they don’t actively take part in our persecution. White liberals have no problem acting like they care about black people while pointing the finger at white conservatives when it comes to who’s really racist. It’s almost comical how stupid they think black people are and how they don’t recognize their own racism. Apathy is really just one of the ingredients of closet racism. You only need to study the bloody history of white American apathy to understand.

They Are Capitalistic

Now, here is the worst of them all. Like the greedy bankers and the Establishment and their warhawks in government that flaps the fans of war involving America from one end of the world to another, to make a profit (since war is profitable) white supremacists like culture vultures are only out for profit. Things that are seen as “too ethnic” or “too black” when a black person does it is seen as “cool” when a white person does it.

They want to be “black” only when it benefits them, but they don’t want to be black and deal with the everyday struggle of being black in America.

Big (white-owned) corporations are able to profit off of black culture. The music industry epitomizes this. They reap the most benefits, while black people continue to suffer. As Sam Philips succinctly put it; “If I could just find a white man who have the Negro feel and the Negro sound, I could easily make a billion dollars.” Of course, this suspected white supremacist means he can’t make billions if it’s an Afrikan with “the Negro sound” because what they are visibly a black person that the audience will obviously see as black. But if a white person with a little bit of talent can just mimic blackness effectively, the doe would start rolling in because only the white man is “permitted” to do it even when it isn’t theirs.

That sounds typical of real capitalists—folks who are exclusively in business to reap profits to the exclusion of others. It means black people can naturally create the rhythm, but only the white people holding the levers of power in the industry should have the power to make a gain off of it.

They Are Racist

Take it or leave it: all culture vultures are racist. If they’re not outright racist, at the very least, they should be viewed as suspected white supremacists. They show love to black culture but not to black people. That’s why you don’t see them on the streets among protest groups protesting against police brutality of black people. You will not find them either on their social media pages condemning racial profiling and racially motivated killings of black people by law enforcement. You will not see them putting forth the effort to build institutions that would be of tremendous benefit to black people. They are never concerned about the call for social justice since they aren’t at the receiving end of social injustice.

They don’t think much of black people and will make excuses for culturally appropriating black culture.

They will credit things not originally created by white people to white people who are participants of black creation. If possible, they will rob the blackness of the black man if they could use it for their benefit.

They spread lies through mass media and when exposed as a racist, rely on pseudoscience to passive-aggressively assert how “white people are more intelligent.” It was easy for Bill O’ Reilly to spout BS that hip hop is responsible for a decline in Christianity. Tell us, was it hip-hop that made the laws of America higher than the laws of God? Was it rap music that forbids the name of Jesus and prayers from being mentioned in some schools in the U.S.? Or is rap music responsible for America being the only country in the world that incarcerates its citizens far more than any other country in the world? Or was it rap music that depraves the behavior of white mass shooters (who are responsible for 98% percent of all mass shooting cases in the U.S.) to reject religion and kill people of other races for fun? If Bill isn’t your quintessential conservative expressing a typical racist viewpoint, then we wonder who is.

Suspected white supremacists like Billy O’ Reilly are usually quick to lash out at black music racially, but they will never tell you black music became a national phenomenon that captured artists like Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith–the majority of which were betrayed, exploited and dumped by racist record label owners.

The Usual Suspects

There was a line in the classic 1995 movie, “The Usual Suspects” that said “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” 

The same thing applies when it comes to identifying a culture vulture. Fortunately, we have the usual suspects.

Miley Cyrus, who was gradually fading out of the limelight, had to do something desperate to keep up and stay relevant, and the only place to run was perceived black culture. Miley Cyrus added (her version of) twerking to her repertoire and the majority of the masses who walk around with their head in the clouds most of their life associated the dance with her. They most likely didn’t know the African origins of twerking. After spending years of trying to appropriate hip hop, she played it out of it on her album, “Bangerz.”

How can someone say she doesn’t like hip-hop anymore but loves Kendrick Lamar’s new song? There you have someone who did their culture vulture thing trying hard to dump a culture she made tons of money from appropriating for many years.

Justin Bieber showed he might just be a culture vulture when he used the “N” word in a 30-second video that surfaced online. Meanwhile, a black girl (possibly the token black “friend”) was giggling in the background.  He later put out an apology, as the video obviously didn’t go down well with fans.

Katy Perry and her blackface shoe were pulled off online retail stores after her shoe was seen as racist. A racist suspect doing what a culture vulture does, which didn’t turn out well, again.

Taylor Swift could be a culture vulture. In her song “Shake It off” she twerks and says nigga, but sings to the same demography of white girls who most likely don’t think much of black people. And the list goes on.

Hip-hop gave Post Malone a big headway in life leaving his heavy metal music, but he doesn’t want to have anything to do with it. Like a typical culture vulture, in and out, leaving behind the remains.

Vanilla Ice, Iggy Azalea, Chef Hanks, Shia Labeouf, and Justin Timberlake could be considered high profile culture vultures who have appropriated black culture to further the course of their careers while displaying their racist suspect colors in one way or the other.

When it gets to a point where a white person feels the need to troll by saying the N word, that’s when you know things have gone too far. To some people, the worst of them all might be The Kardashians who have appropriated black culture nine times (maybe more), making them possibly one of the most consistent culture vultures on this list.

Honorable Mentions

When you think racist acts can’t get any uglier, you hear special mentions that bang at you with pulsating surprises.

Benny Goodman, a white man, was named as the “King of Swing” in the 1930s. A few decades later Elvis Presley was tagged the “King of Rock’ N’ Roll.” Rolling Stone declared Justin Timberlake in 2003, as the “King of R&B” then came Eminem who is popularly called the “Elvis of Hip-Hop.” While Eminem is an extremely talented rapper, the sins of his past were exposed. Maybe you knew or maybe you didn’t, but The Source did publish racist lyrics that were written by him. Now ask yourself; how can a white man become the face of black music? That is the height of racism and culture appropriation.

Why Black People Need To Move On

It’s simple. Black people need to stop enabling these types of people. These types of people are cancerous. Throughout history, white people have in fact made a mockery of black people. We must never forget blackface and its historical racist roots, which started after the U.S. Civil War.

It’s about time black people stop getting excited whenever they come across a white person who seems to “be down” or seems to be really “cool.” Black people need to stop getting excited when a white person acknowledges their existence. Black people need to stop seeking white approval. Being friends with white people isn’t an issue at all, but entertaining the ones who have the audacious privilege to appropriate black culture while insulting black people at the same time is plain stupid.

Black people have done this for so long to the point where cultural appropriation became somewhat acceptable behavior. If a white person gives lip service to racism, black people become too quick to want to invite them to some imaginary cookout. All of this needs to stop. These people have no problem saying “yo yo yo” and quoting rap lyrics to pander to black people (if they’re not trolling), so it’s time to move on. Being black isn’t a mask that someone gets to wear. Black people are real people living real lives in real time. It’s seriously time to stop entertaining clowns. If black people want to be in the presence of clowns, then all black people need to do is go to the circus.