Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word and Me

Elizabeth Pryor will be joined in conversation by Sullivan Summer.

Part memoir by the daughter of the iconic comedian Richard Pryor, part exploration of the historical and contemporary use of the N-word, this hybrid book peels back the curtain on the life of Pryor and interrogates the most perplexing word in the American lexicon, a word he helped popularize.

The N-word is one of the most explosive and controversial words in the English language. It’s a word that Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor spent years researching and teaching but also one she observed up close as the daughter of Richard Pryor, the superstar comedian, who more than 50 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, Pryor reveals the messy and sometimes surprising legacies of racism in the United States. A braided narrative that seamlessly interrogates memory, 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.

Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor is a professor of history at Smith College where she teaches courses on race, slavery, and her father, comedic legend Richard Pryor. She is the award-winning author of the article “The Etymology of [N-Word]: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North” and the 2016 book Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship Before the Civil War (UNC Press). Her viral TED talk on why it’s hard to talk about the n-word has been viewed more than two million times.

Sullivan Summer is an independent scholar, critic, essayist, poet, and host of Additions to the Archive with Sullivan Summer, a New Books Network podcast.