![Natasha T. Miller](https://cdn.hourdetroit.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/02/tasha-2.jpg)
Μύ*What Up Doe, Whadupdoe, Waddupdoe: Itβs a greeting, a phrase, a word with multiple spellings, yet one meaning β home.Μύ
In June 2016, I was standing in front of a crowd of 30,000 visitors in Detroit at Ford Field. My back and my palms were sweating. It was the most nervous I had ever felt before a spoken word poetry performance. I remember asking myself, βWhat would make these people smile?β Then I looked out into the audience and said, βIβm from Detroit where we say βWhat Up Doe,β so when I say βWhat Up Doe,β you say βWhat Up Doeβ β βWhat Up Doe.β β Next thing I know, 30,000 people were smiling and yelling, βWhat Up Doeβ to the stage, and in an instant, the crowd got safer. The room felt like it belonged to me.Μύ
In a city where so much has been stripped from the natives, specifically from black Detroiters, where schools have been shut down, black-owned businesses have closed, families have been displaced, locked up, or have even died young, itβs important to have a thing you love. Something youβre protective over that belongs to you.Μύ
If you ask Detroiters what their favorite Coney Island is, most will tell you about the Coney Island near where they grew up. People from both the eastside and westside will argue about how the cheese and the chili taste worse on the other side of town. We will debate about the best-flavored Faygo pop or Better Made chip, the safest liquor store, or the hypest high school β assuming that the school is still open. What we will not be divided on though, is the βWhat Up Doe, Whadupdoe, or the Waddupdoe.βΜύ
It is not a question, which is why thereβs no question mark after it. You donβt say, βWhat Up Doeβ and a person responds by telling you βWhatβs Up?β You say βWhat Up Doeβ and a person responds with, βWhat Up Doe.β A person responds to the βWhat Up Doeβ by lowering their guard, by smiling, by taking off their shoes, by welcoming you home.Μύ
Iβd like to believe that we unite around the βWhat Up Doeβ because itβs not a building, or a flavor: Itβs not something that can be shut down, discontinued, or taken away from us. The βWhat Up Doeβ canβt be bought. The βWhat Up Doeβ or βWhaddupdoeβ is not simply words or a word, itβs a feeling. βItβs the feeling I imagine Wakandans get when they cross their arms over their chest.β βItβs a verbal hug, a recognition of your humanity and hustle.β βIt is love and home,β as described by my friends on Facebook from Detroit. Μύ
The βWhat Up Doeβ is a sermon in a city of abandoned churches. The βWhat Up Doeβ is paired best with the βboss-up-and-get-this-moneyβ dance created in the early 2000s by slain Detroit rapper Blade Icewood.Μύ
The βWhat Up Doeβ is the Detroit saying and perhaps, most importantly, the Detroit feeling. We are not defined by a Midwest or Southern accent, a TβBaby song, or a plant. We are 100 percent in agreeance that the βWhat Up Doeβ is our thing β and that thing
always brings us home.Μύ
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