In 1967, the young comedian Richard Pryor had one of the hottest shows on the Las Vegas Strip. While performing at the Aladdin one night, his audience was treated to a show they’d never forget.
Pryor was performing in front of a sold-out crowd at the Aladdin Hotel but his heart was no longer in the G-rated jokes that club owners wanted him to tell the white audiences. Finally sick of doing the same tired material, his boredom bubbled over.
“What the f*** am I doing here?” Pryor exclaimed. He left the stage and was immediately fired. Unable to find gigs where he could perform the edgy, more political material he loved, Pryor moved to Berkeley, California, in 1969.
At Berkeley, Pryor immersed himself in the counterculture movement and became friends with Black Panthers Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton. Here, Pryor decided to perform comedy that truly reflected the Black experience. He would never compromise his comedy to appease whiteness again.
We cannot live our lives shackled by the expectations of whiteness. Pryor became his best self when he put his Blackness first. Like him, we must find our ways to keep our own Blackness front and center.