Aren't we just too clever? Having obscure facts at one's ready disposal should be admirable, but a quick response that illustrates the writer's failure to understand someone else's statement is not to be admired at all.
And just how should we have understood the original statement?
The facts aren't that obscure and my points were relevant. Hundreds of years ago, "white boys" (including Chaucer, who is studied as literature) were writing and saying "axe" or "aks" for "ask" because it was part of their dialect and they were neither "stupid" (unless you want to call Chaucer or the authors of the Cloverdale Bible "stupid") nor necessarily "kollege" educated nor under the influence of the evils of Ebonics.
Further, "Where you at?" could easily be considered a contraction such that "Where are you at?" -> "Where're you at?" -> "Whe're you at?" This is similar to the multi-sylable contraction of "Did you eat yet?" into "D'y'eat yet?" Why call people stupid or making fun of them (as President Bush's critics do with the way he says "nuclear"), when the person simply speaks a different dialect of English? Isn't it a lot more constructive to try to understand why people are speaking English differently?
Are there legitimate issues that can be raised about the dialects spoken by young people and the association between dialect and social class? Of course. Heck, I've taken English test for employment years ago that seemed purposely crafted to catch "Ebonics" (I'm white, by the way) and know quite well that people are judged by their accents and dialect. Are different dialects necessarily the result of stupidity or a lack of education? No.
Many urban blacks have no trouble switching between a standard TV English dialect and an urban black dialect and I have a friend who can switch from Jamaican to American television English effortlessly. People pick their dialects for a reason and if you just chalk it up to stupidity, you are missing the bigger picture that many people are choosing their dialect to mark their identity. And white kids adopt black dialects primarily because it annoys their parents. It's the same reason why Roman kids dressed up like Huns. Usually they grow out of it.