[nopardons]

No they don't ! I went to school with blacks, and not a one of them EVER said " axed " ! I have know lots of blacks, throughout my life, and never, NOT ONCE, has any of them ever said " axed " ! Listen to Charklie Rangle, and Vernon Jordan, and Walter Williams, and Thomas Sowell, and a host of others ... not a one of them have EVER said " axed " !

I know some Americans, who were born in Cuba. I don't recall hearing any one of them sounding as though they had a " potato in their mouth ". OTOH, I HAVE heard some Englishmen, who really DO sound as though they had several potatoes in their mouths. LOL

[driftless]

Well I've heard plenty of people who identified themselves as black who say "axe" for ask. But so what. If you go to my part of the Midwest (and many other parts I'm sure), you would hear the local whites murder a great many words of the English language as well as practice other forms of grammatical terror against it. Many Americans of all cultures and colors slaughter the language on a daily basis. It's not limited to one particular group. I've had to correct white college graduates here about their saying "I seen him do that". They refuse to believe that that usage is incorrect. "I seen (something)" is a common grammatical error around here, but it's certainly not the only one. We should all practice better grammar including many people on this forum yours truly not excepted.

And one more time, it's LOSE not loose as in I'm going to lose my mind if too many more people spell it "loose".

[RushLake]

Well, since we're into splitting hairs this morning regarding language usage, I have experienced africanhyphenamericans using "axe" in place of "ask". I had a young africanhyphenamerican college graduate assigned to work for me in industrial engineering several years ago. He was fully trained by one of the experienced I.E.'s. During the course of the training he turned to the old timer said, "I want to axe you a question. Why fo we be do dis?" He also advised me that he was smarter than anyone in the office because he "be havin' fo degrees". He was one of many who spoke that way.

[NewHampshireDuo]

Heck, I worked with a very nice totally white lady who said "axed" as well as butchering other common words. I don't think color has a thing to do with it.

[Atchafalaya]

No,we down here in La. use "axe" a lot. " I went on down to the Audubon Zoo, where they all axed for you"