Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word and Me
Part memoir by Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, daughter of iconic comedian Richard Pryor, part historical exploration of the N-word, SOMETHING WE SAID peels back the curtain on her famous father’s inner world and grapples with the most notorious word in the American lexicon, a word he helped catapult into the mainstream.
The N-word is one of the most explosive and controversial words in the English language. It’s a word Elizabeth has not only spent years researching and teaching as a history professor at Smith College but one she observed up close as the daughter of Richard Pryor, the superstar comedian who, over fifty years ago, thrust the word into the center of American culture, forcing the country to reckon with it.
In her journey to learn more about the history of the word—the way it’s used to be divisive on the one hand and to build community on the other—Elizabeth reveals the messy and sometimes surprising legacies of racism in the United States.
A braided narrative that seamlessly integrates memoir, history and culture, Something We Said shows how language can both destroy and empower and how family, ever complex, can pass on legacies that impact not just individuals but also worlds.