I've been doing shows around the country.
Around the world really.
I've been blessed.
And I remember one day I'm in L.A.
and I'm doing a show and we're sitting backstage
and this comedian comes in to the backstage area
and he's got a list of all the guys that are performing.
And so, he looks around and he looks at the
darkest guy in the corner, just the blackest guy
he could find.
And he goes
[comedically] hey, yo.
You the dude from Africa?
[laughter]
And the guy looks up and he's like
[comedically] nah man, I'm from Detroit.
[laughter]
He's like
[comedically] a'ight, my bad.
My bad.
Uh, a'ight, uh, yo.
OK, Detroit.
Yeah, yeah.
You--oh, a'ight, OK cool.
L.A.
OK, cool.
Cool.
[normal speaking voice] And then he looks at me
for a second, does a quick calculation.
And he's like oh, a'ight, a'ight, um, yeah.
[laughter]
And then he looks and he goes
[comedically] yo, where you from man?
[normal voice] I said I'm from South Africa.
He's like
[comedically] oh, oh, oh.
You the dude?
[laughter]
Oh damn, man.
Damn.
A'ight.
Yo, I didn't even know they got--yo,
you the dude from Africa?
[laughter]
Man, didn't even know they got
light-skinned [bleep] out there, man.
[laughter]
Damn.
A'ight.
Yo.
That's the motherland, man.
That's the motherland.
[normal voice] And all of a sudden he just started
giving me this speech.
He's like
[comedically] man, you know, yo man, that's--yo man,
that's where we gotta be, man.
That's, you know--
[laughter]
--that's the motherland out there, man.
Yeah.
I gots to get out there, man.
I gots to.
Yo, I gots to go home, man.
[laughter]
You heard?
I gots to go home.
Man, you tell them.
A'ight?
You tell 'em.
You tell them I'm coming home, a'ight?
[laughter]
[normal speaking voice] And I was like
[laughs] we're not waiting.
[laughter]
'
that's come--that whole identity has come
from the term African-American
This is something that's fascinated me.
You know, it's the very loose term.
African-American.
'Cause half of the time you use it for people that
aren't even African.
You know?
Just use it long as you're black.
They go African-American.
But it's--what if people aren't from Africa?
They still African-American?
Those people from the Caribbean, from Haiti, from Jamaica.
You know?
They call--
[comedically] yeah, African-America.
Guys like
[Jamaican accent] no man, I come from Jamaica.
I no' from Africa.
[laughter]
I ain't never been there 'fore, man.
[comedically] He's like you wanna stay?
[Jamaican accent] African-American, man.
Hey.
[laughter, applause]
[normal voice] The prefix to American has become as
important as American itself.
I thought it was just American but it's not.
No, no, no.
It's very important you have the prefix.
You know, you have African-American.
African-American.
You have others like Latin-
or Mexican-American.
You have Asian-American.
You have--the most interesting for me was
Indian-American which I learned about during Thanksgiving.
Indian-American.
And then I was told I'm no longer allowed to say this.
Said I now have to say Native American.
Which is redundant, is it not?
[laughter]
Because if somebody's a native of the land
they're still in should you not then just
call them American?
[laughter]
How does that work?
[laughter continues, applause]