*”Saturday Night Live” star Michael Che said he was “stunned” to learn that he, a Black man, was accused of cultural appropriation over a skit he wrote for the show last weekend.
Che’s “Gen Z Hospital” poked fun at Generation Z’s use of slang by placing their language – like “bruh,” “stan,” “no cap” and “sis” – within a hospital setting. Social media users were quick to point out that some of the words originated in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), not Generation Z, yet no credit was given to Black people who created the terms.
“I’m so tired of non-black people throwing random AAVE terms in their sentences and calling that horse s**t ‘Gen Z language,'” tweeted Pfizer Princess.
Che responded on his Instagram page Monday in a since-deleted post. “I’ve been reading about how my ‘gen z’ sketch was misappropriating AAVE and I was stunned cause what the f**k is ‘AAVE’? I had to look it up,” he wrote. “Turns out it’s an acronym for ‘African American vernacular english.’ You know, AAVE! That ol’ saying that actual black people use in conversation all the time. Look, the sketch bombed. I’m used to that. I meant no offense to the ‘aave’ community. I love aave. Aave to the moon!”
Watch the sketch below:
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