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  • 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.

  • My bad.

  • Uh, a'ight, uh, yo.

  • OK, Detroit.

  • Yeah, yeah.

  • You--oh, a'ight, OK cool.

  • L.A.

  • OK, cool.

  • 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.

  • 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]

  • ' Cause I'm just--I'm fascinate--I think

  • 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?

I've been doing shows around the country.

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