Comic Paul Mooney declares war on the N-word

Comic Paul Mooney, who served for years as Richard Pryor's head writer and wing-man, was the closest thing the N-word had to a prophet. If Pryor and Mooney were kindred spirits, however, their philosophies diverged when Pryor returned from a visit to Africa and swore off the incendiary epithet. When the comedic legend publicly announced he would no longer use it, Mooney followed him on stage at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles, shouting, "I'm gonna say it till I die. Bury me in a black El Dorado and write 'nigger' on the license!"

"I understand why young blacks wanna say it. I understand, 'We spell it with an A, not an E.' But it's like, if you cook a goat, do you sauté it or barbecue it? It's still a goddamn goat!"But as committed as Mooney was, the Michael Richards incident knocked him off his feet. After seeing the cringe-inducing cell phone video of Richards' Laugh Factory breakdown, Mooney was suddenly front and center on the other side of the controversy, spreading Pryor's gospel that the word was an evil to be abolished rather than reclaimed. Now, he's helping spearhead a movement. The people behind websites like abolishthenword.com and theunitedvoices.org are working hard to convince African-Americans to eliminate the slur from their vocabulary, and symbolic resolutions banning its use are working their way through local governments across the country—including one which was passed by New York's City Council on February 28.

Ironically, Mooney's new DVD, Know Your History: Jesus was Black ... So Was Cleopatra, filmed before the Richards incident, is chock full of the now-verboten invective.

RADAR: This past January, a town in Texas proposed a $500 fine for saying the N-word [the proposal didn't pass]. And the New York City Council just passed a similar, if only symbolic, ban. Should we be legislating this?
PAUL MOONEY: "Why you doin' five years?" "Oh, I said the N-word." I think that's absolutely brilliant. But, no. Dick Gregory said he's always gonna say it, because he was down south with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the sheriff looked down from the horse and said, "If you niggers cross this line, I'll kill you, and I don't care what that nigger-loving president has to say." Dick said, "They didn't say no 'N' word, they said 'nigger.' So I'll say it till I die." And I can relate. I understand why people say it, why young blacks wanna say it. I understand, "We spell it with an A, not an E." But it's like, if you cook a goat, do you sauté it or barbecue it? It's still a goddamn goat!

There's a routine on Know Your History about other ethnicities getting their "N-word wake-up call." Do you see every ethnicity as comparable to blacks?
Yes, of course. Mexicans, Jews, all of it's the same.

If that's the case, who is "the man?"
White people. They're always the man. The Romans. We're a spin-off of Rome.

I'm a Jew. So we'd be in the same category.
Of course. Two men in a burning house don't have time to stop and argue.

You once said that when Richard Pryor made his announcement about ending his use of the N-word, you didn't think he was sincere. Has everything that's happened now made you re-evaluate your opinion of what he did?
Oh yeah, of course. I couldn't see it! Like the Jew who was going to the concentration camps. "I'm German. They won't gas me. It's a shower." I just didn't know any better.

That's a harsh comparison.
But it's the truth, isn't it?

I interviewed you last year, and you said you were fine with the N-word. Why did the Michael Richards incident change your mind?
I saw the video. I saw the demons that it created. Being the ambassador for the word, being married to it, I had to accept the responsibility of my convictions. I was a part of it. By using the word, I made it available for him to use—I made it an equal opportunity word. So all the young kids say it. Richard [Pryor] and I did it for different reasons. They were different times. When I saw the Michael Richards video, I saw the horror and the heinousness of it.