That's very interesting (regarding "axe")! Out of curiosity, could you provide a reference for the notion that black people's pronunciation of "ask" is due to a physical difference in their palate? My cursory Google search hasn't turned up any academic substantiation for this.

Ask vs. Axe. Many African Americans actually do say "axe" and we are all well aware of it, but can not pronounce it, just as many Japanese (what I am) can literally NOT hear the difference between R & L, and also find it almost impossible to pronounce them independently.

However, saying something one way, does not mean we do not know how it's said by everyone else. What prevents most people from saying ask instead of axe is actually how the hard palate is shaped. Many African Americans say "axe" because of the shape of their palate.. not because they don't know it's "ask" or that they're stupid.. but because some African Americans are actually physically incapable of forming that sound due to the shape of their palate. Now if it's a Caucasian person with no African ancestry to give them a chance of having a similarly shaped palate, then okay, I would totally get it being a pet peeve then.. lol.

Don't believe it.. ask a person who does have formal training in linguistics.