Richard Pryor died today.

What blows my mind about Richard is that when you listen to much of his material, it doesn’t sound all that different from the likes of Chris Rock or a Eddie Murphy. Then it dawns on you. He was talking about having sex with white women on stage in the early 1970s! That was less than a decade after the death of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and John F. Kennedy. It was less than a decade after the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. I read somewhere that Pryor was the Malcom to Dick Gregory’s Martin. I haven’t had any exposure to Gregory’s work, but I can see where the Malcolm reference is apropos. Pryor’s routines must have scared the bejesus out of some white folks at the time. When viewed in that context, Pryor’s material was truly political (and revolutionary).

Later tonight, I am going to dust off my copy of the Bicentennial Nigger LP, pore a glass of bourbon over ice, and spend some time with Mr. Pryor.

Rest in Peace Richard.

Update: I really hope that they do a tribute show for Pryor. The talent that would line up for that show might be unmatched in history.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 10th, 2005 at 6:38 pm and is filed under In Memoriam, Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.