"Waddup, fool?"

Yes, friends, that’s what this black fellow said to me as I was on my way into a building to cover a story. It amazed me how the English language is compounded with African American slang.

Now, I’m neither naive nor stupid, but I asked him, “Who is a fool?”

He looked at my ass like I was crazy! Be it me to relish the fact that I understand and speak the beautiful English language, I considered it to be one of the hardest languages to master, what with these words that sound the same:

1. Knew
2. New

Whew, this is why other Nationalities should receive way more kudos, because they can not only speak our language, but they master their language as well.

Back to the Post

So, he says to me, he says, “You. I said wassup?”

“Oh, you mean, wassup, brotha? Or wassup, sir?”

He laughed.

“Naw, I meant, wassup, fool?” he said.

“What makes me a fool?” I asked.

And he responded with, “It’s a finger of speech, dumb ass.” He even rolled his eyes after this sentence.

Suddenly, I wasn’t as mad. He obviously didn’t have an inkling of understanding the phrase he’d spoken to me, and he gave attitude to boot.

“Okay,” I said, with a smile. “When you pass that finger of speech to your kids, I’ll tell my children to say hello while your kids are serving them fries at McDonalds. Bye, fool.”

Was that so un-cool? Yes.

The guy screamed at me, while I was walking away, “You Uncle Tom, N***a!”

What makes me an Uncle Tom? Is it because I try to understand and speak the English language? Is it because I have rather nice diction and enunciation? Should I be considered less than black because I don’t use double negatives, walk around with my pants down to my ankles; go to jail, love rap, or scavenger hunt for pussy?

Well, should I? I never thought my own race would be so prejudiced against me.