Future Honorary Sigmas Bill Clinton, Al Sharpton, Stevie Wonder

[DrPhil]

Many people (not me) call Maya Angelou "Dr" based on her many honorary doctorates. She called herself "Dr" and preferred to be called "Dr". She never attended college. She has a lifetime of experiences, I appreciate some of what she accomplished, but I do not call her "Dr."

It is unfortunately common for some people in the Black community to use "Dr" for people who do not have any such degrees--not even honorary. There is a gospel station with a show whose host calls herself "Dr" and lets listeners call her "Dr". I also knew of a pastor of a church who did that many years ago. I consider that a disregard for people who worked toward these degrees.

[als463]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Many people (not me) call Maya Angelou "Dr" based on her many honorary doctorates. She called herself "Dr" and preferred to be called "Dr". She never attended college. She has a lifetime of experiences, I appreciate some of what she accomplished, but I do not call her "Dr."

It is unfortunately common for some people in the Black community to use "Dr" for people who do not have any such degrees--not even honorary. There is a gospel station with a show whose host calls herself "Dr" and let's listeners call her "Dr". I also knew of a pastor of a church who did that many years ago. I consider that a disregard for people who worked toward these degrees.

I noticed that about some people in the church community who do that too. We had one man running for an office in my area who is a pastor and people would either call him Pastor .... or he would go by Doctor. He has no doctorate of any kind. If he even had a JD and was a lawyer who did that, he'd have some merit--to a degree. It would be really pretentious though. That gets under my skin too.