Kudos To Paul Mooney

In the wake of Michael Richard's video-grabbed blowout at the Laugh Factory a couple of weeks ago, in which he liberally used "the n-word", comedian of color Paul Mooney has vowed that HE is going to stop using the word in his act. If you don't know Paul, he and Richard Pryor spent years trying to reverse engineer the power of the n-word by using it in their routines to shock and educate their audiences. No more. In an interview with an AP reporter, Mooney said that he had an epiphany of sorts while watching the video of Richard's meltdown. There's no telling if other black comedians will follow suit, but Paul is pretty influential and it would be nice to see an end put to the double standard of using the n-word. In solidarity, I also vow not to use the n-word here in The Daily Grill. Not that I ever have, but now it's official.