Nonfiction
Book
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Details
PUBLISHED
©2026
EDITION
DESCRIPTION
viii, 287 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
ISBN/ISSN
LANGUAGE
NOTES
Illustrations on endpapers
"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 perplexing, controversial and misunderstood words in the American lexicon. It's a word that Elizabeth Pryor has not only contemplated, it's one that she has taught and observed up close. When a white student quoted her father and blurted out the N-word in the middle of a class she was teaching, Professor Pryor's worlds collided. In that moment, she was forced to confront the history of the notorious slur in the United States, and her complicated relationship with her father Richard Pryor, who made the word a trademark of his comedy in the 1970s. As she dives into her research, her own memories of the N-word come flooding back in unprocessed memories that she hadn't thought about for decades. In reckoning with those memories, Elizabeth goes on a more public journey of discovery of the messy and sometimes surprising legacies of racism in the United States. A braided narrative that seamlessly integrates the history of the N-word with Elizabeth's own story of growing up the Black Jewish daughter of Richard Pryor, Something We Said follows Elizabeth as she becomes a leading scholar and teacher of the very word her father put on the pop culture map."--
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SUBJECTS
Pryor, Elizabeth Stordeur -- Family
Pryor, Elizabeth Stordeur -- Childhood and youth
African American historians -- Biography
African Americans -- Social conditions
African Americans -- Race identity -- History
English language -- United States -- Obscene words -- History
Invective -- Political aspects -- United States
Racism in language -- United States