The Admirer, The Appropriator & The Culture Vulture

What is a culture vulture? Is it someone of a different culture admiring yours? Is a culture vulture a white person who enjoys listening to hip hop music? What is the true definition? Let’s break it down. 

A culture vulture is not someone who simply admires a culture, nor is it the same as culture appropriation. Here is how you can tell the three apart. 

ADMIRATION – A person who admires a culture will take the time to educate themselves about the culture while remaining respectful. For example, it’s perfectly possible for a person of any race or culture to become knowledgable about and admire African, Indian, Asian culture without disrespecting the culture by turning tribal attire into thot dresses or wearing faux locs while speaking in a faux Jamaican accent. That is offensive. Someone who studies and is knowledgable of different cultures tends to travel abroad, donate to charities, stand up for other cultures in times of need or in cases like “hip hop” culture, for example, they immerse themselves in the lifestyle and find ways to make it better and keep it authentic without taking away from it.

This leads us to APPROPRIATION – This is someone whose admiration is simply a fashion statement and nothing more. This is someone who can’t begin to understand why others would be offended by them turning their culture into a costume. They don’t get it because they don’t know the roots of the culture themselves. This is someone who does not live, breathe or understand the culture that they are assimilating. This is someone who wears baggy jeans and cornrows for “fun” because they believe that’s what “hip hop” is. This is someone that when things get hot in the community, will take off their “costume” and go back to their regular life.

Then there is the infamous CULTURE VULTURE. This is someone who has taken appropriation to a new level. Their eyes are filled with dollar signs. They use a specific culture to make money off of and nothing more. They don’t exactly admire the culture, hell, they probably don’t even like the culture. But they are business savvy. They are smart. They see a niche and a way to make money, so they dive in. We’ve seen the type, deep down they dislike black people, but they don’t mind the black dollar. They’ll break bread with blacks, sure, but when they go home, they don’t give back to that culture they’ve made so much money off of. This happens in every industry, not just music, and due to social media and the ability to dig up old tweets, more and more people get exposed of it every day. 

Can you think of good examples of The Admirer, The Appropriator & The Culture Vulture?