The "EveryBody" Insider
Communicating the Concerns of Black People

This commentary is offered on the passing of the well-known comedian/actor known as Richard Pryor who transitioned in 2005.

There is much which can be said or written about the man, his life, and his career.  I have watched and listened to Richard Pryor for many years from childhood on.  Through the needle of the phonograph, the cathode ray tube of the TV and the silverscreen of the movie theater, I have spent countless hours absorbed in the psyche and antics of Richard Pryor.   How my view of the world has been impacted positively or negatively by Richard is extremely hard to gauge.  He has given ideas of what to be and how to be as well as what not to be and what not to become.

Richard seemed to withhold neither truth nor falsehood for the sake of making a point or creating a storm of laughter.  No matter what manner of odor or frankness he presented to the world, one always knew exactly what Richard was talking about.  One always knew the feelings and emotions which he sought to evoke.  One always seemed to know and glean the very essence of the inner workings of the mind and soul of Richard.

Richard never claimed to be a saint.  He never said he was perfect.  He made himself the object of his own jokes.  He marveled only at the brilliance of  his own foolishness, insanity, joy and pain.

He was proud of a few of his heroes - Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown, for example.  And, he tried to focus on the positive attributes of other individuals while making fun mainly of himself.

One never knew what Richard could/would say or do next.  It seems that if he felt it or thought it, he'd say it or do it.  Whether it was profane or profound, it was ALL just Richard.

Richard took the realm of the profane and profound to heights previously unknown.  Even the most censored artists of this day can't hold a match to the likes of the king of the profoundly profane and the profanely profound embodied in the earthly package known as Richard Pryor.

For many years I thought Richard could be funny and entertaining only if he used language which is now plastered with parental warning labels.

Then Richard showed that he could use many other tools from his vast arsenal to enlighten, amaze and amuse.  Many times all it would take was a simple movement or facial expression, or a gentle roll of the eyes from side to side that would be enough to bring a laugh.  It seemed there was little that he couldn't do to entertain and perhaps little that he wouldn't do.

He could be a blind man in "Hear no Evil See no Evil", a crooked preacher in "Car Wash", a smoothly dressed gangster in "Harlem Nights", an Indian or Cuban or Black baseball player in "Bingo Long Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings", a piano man/junkie in "Lady Sings the Blues",  etc.
 

Richard provided some very memorable quotes - some requiring censor and some tame which have perhaps permanently impacted the community.

"Just us" - that's what you see in prison - "just us" ( Black folks).   Why, decades after Richard made this observation, do Black people continue to find "just us"?

"He was old but he wasn't no fool.  You see.  You don't get to be old being no fool."

"Washington D.C. - dark country"

"B proud of any n- doing anything!"  - which brings up a big point of discussion.

Richard, as far as I remember, was the first person that I knew who used the n- word at will on a regular basis.  However, Richard was so funny that his use of the n- word became trivial and irrelevant.  Eventually, the n- word would creep into the vocabulary of Black people around me in my neighborhood.  It was no longer a forbidden word but a ploy for setting up jokes.  Later the jokes diminished; but, the n- word remained a fixture in the colloquial conversations of some Black people.

It became "cute" for Black folks to use the n- word among themselves while it retained censorship for the lips of White people and non-Blacks.

In 2005 we find it fashionable among Black people to use the n- word but criminal, offensive, and hazardous for White people or non-Blacks to use it.  If it sounds like a double standard then one must surely be deaf.  There are not enough decibels available to describe the loudness of the message - it IS a double standard.  It is so loud that society has been deafened.  And, Black people are the most afflicted.  When a Black person uses the term it is funny and cute but when a White person uses the term it is grounds for death by torture or other means of cruel and unusual punishment.

Richard, who made the use of the word popular and funny to me, had a conversion experience on his trip to Africa.  He returned vowing never to use the n- word again.  Richard censored and corrected himself on the use of that one word.  Richard, the man who could/would say ANYthing, now could or would say anything BUT the n-word.

In contrast today, it seems we have people who seem to say nothing BUT the n-word.

Richard saw that he could not only say whatever he wanted but also change what he chose to say.

The n-  is a nothing, according to Richard.  Since Black people ARE something and not nothing, it follows that they are NOT n-'s. 

Thus, Richard graduated summa cum laude in the psychology, philosophy and sociology of the use of the n- word.

Many of the rest of us are slow learners or perhaps drop outs or maybe never enrolled in that particular school of thought.

Richard grew and grew older.  He never achieved perfection nor perhaps did he seek perfection.  However, he was in a way the perfect example of imperfection.  He never really hid his imperfection.  The exposure of the imperfections was only limited by the inability to reveal the totality of its limitless expanse.

Few share their imperfections as openly and freely as a Richard Pryor.  Few have that level of  nerve, courage, naïveté, and/or insanity.

Yet, one knows that Richard was intelligent and brilliant knowing much about life and its peculiarities and extremes.

Many lamented Richard's failing health in his later years.  He could no longer walk or stand up physically.  He could no longer utter a word neither clean, profane and/or profound.  Yet, he always remained a giant and a legend.  Yet, he remains a giant and a legend.

In closing - I bid farewell to Richard.  You have made me laugh more than once.  You have made me smile more than once.  You have made me think more than once. You have made me change what I do, say and think more than once for the betterment of myself and the world around me.

Farewell Richard.  MAY GOD grant you peace and rest.

Bahati