dude

[Matthew Gordon]

I used the word 'dude' in an example sentence on an exam and was
surprised to find that many of my students associated the word with
California speech exclusively or at least in origin. Let me be clear: I
wasn't surprised that they made this connection with California (home of
surfer dudes) but that they didn't consider the word could represent a
different variety. In fact, the example sentence also contained a use of
'crib' as in "house" and I thought this would trigger an association
with AAVE. They did label 'crib' as AAVE in origin but still saw 'dude'
as Californian.

Thus, my question: What is the status of 'dude' in African American
speech today? Is it still used? Is it considered old-fashioned?