I watched a 1976 Pryor stand-up in 2020 and I couldn’t laugh at all. The country was reeling over the murder of George Floyd and Pryor’s jokes were all about police officers murdering black people. That’s when it finally hit me that despite all the outward progress we’ve made, the exact same problems are plaguing BPOC still, 47 years later. Like what in the actual fuck? I guess his audience laughed because of the shock value of it, nobody before him had the courage to outright say the things he was saying, but watching it 47 years later while the exact same problems are happening wasn’t funny, it was depressing and infuriating.
I had that exact awakening during the same timeframe.
Like holy shit - I have been laughing at Chapelle, and Rock, and Pryor, and others, thinking these were just jokes. No, they were never just jokes.
I felt ridiculous that I’d grown up in such a bubble that my reaction had been to think these were solved problems that were being made fun of just because they were sort of part of the zeitgeist a that point.
So much respect for these guys putting it out there, but I feel a little ashamed of how long it took me to start realizing these were NOT solved problems.
Yeah it kinda hit me during 2020 (and I’m ashamed it took that long) that black entertainers (not exclusively, but in particular) have been ringing the bell about this for decades. It really drove home that these are not recent problems, they are only recently (in my experience) getting mainstream coverage.
I rewatched all episodes of Chappelle’s Show during 2020 (in between watching the daily livestream of police cracking skulls) - and realized that even where there wasn’t a skit about police brutality, there was at least a one liner in his monologue about it - without fail.
I also recognize that police brutality is but one symptom and doesn’t really get at root causes, but it’s a symptom I admit to being blind to for a good chunk of my life, so it really tends to grab my attention now. I grew up in a bubble of “these problems were solved before you were born” and was definitely one of those “the cops must have a had a reason” folks for longer than I want to admit. Pretty sure I had members in my extended family who would have responded just like the woman in your clip from OP.
Cutting myself short here before this becomes a novel. I’ll summarize as, it’s sad to see how little things have changed in some ways.
Pretty much the same as you. It happened to me while trying to understand the support for Trump. Now I’m overwhelmed and frustrated that this knowledge was suppressed for most of my life.
Richard Pryor was hilarious.
I grew up in the 70’s, but was well into my adulthood before I realized he called out things like in OP pretty often.
Here he is telling us what’s what about the cops back in 1979, with a quick line in the middle about how white people don’t know what the cops do.
And an entire bit that sounds like it could have been written last year.
And an SNL skit I just saw for the first time that had me rolling.
Now I need to go get my hands on some of his old albums. 😁
I watched a 1976 Pryor stand-up in 2020 and I couldn’t laugh at all. The country was reeling over the murder of George Floyd and Pryor’s jokes were all about police officers murdering black people. That’s when it finally hit me that despite all the outward progress we’ve made, the exact same problems are plaguing BPOC still, 47 years later. Like what in the actual fuck? I guess his audience laughed because of the shock value of it, nobody before him had the courage to outright say the things he was saying, but watching it 47 years later while the exact same problems are happening wasn’t funny, it was depressing and infuriating.
I had that exact awakening during the same timeframe.
Like holy shit - I have been laughing at Chapelle, and Rock, and Pryor, and others, thinking these were just jokes. No, they were never just jokes.
I felt ridiculous that I’d grown up in such a bubble that my reaction had been to think these were solved problems that were being made fun of just because they were sort of part of the zeitgeist a that point.
So much respect for these guys putting it out there, but I feel a little ashamed of how long it took me to start realizing these were NOT solved problems.
That second clip hits hard. He starts to get into the cycle of violence, and the stress of being black; either intentionally or just by observation.
Yeah it kinda hit me during 2020 (and I’m ashamed it took that long) that black entertainers (not exclusively, but in particular) have been ringing the bell about this for decades. It really drove home that these are not recent problems, they are only recently (in my experience) getting mainstream coverage.
I rewatched all episodes of Chappelle’s Show during 2020 (in between watching the daily livestream of police cracking skulls) - and realized that even where there wasn’t a skit about police brutality, there was at least a one liner in his monologue about it - without fail.
I also recognize that police brutality is but one symptom and doesn’t really get at root causes, but it’s a symptom I admit to being blind to for a good chunk of my life, so it really tends to grab my attention now. I grew up in a bubble of “these problems were solved before you were born” and was definitely one of those “the cops must have a had a reason” folks for longer than I want to admit. Pretty sure I had members in my extended family who would have responded just like the woman in your clip from OP.
Cutting myself short here before this becomes a novel. I’ll summarize as, it’s sad to see how little things have changed in some ways.
Pretty much the same as you. It happened to me while trying to understand the support for Trump. Now I’m overwhelmed and frustrated that this knowledge was suppressed for most of my life.