Richard Pryor Scandal

Without doubt, Richard Pryor is one of the greatest comedians that ever lived. He is not attributed this title just because of his ability to tell jokes but because of his films and sketches. He addressed social issues and discrepancies in a way that was beyond his time. Watching his performances, whether it be stand up or a sketch, one cannot help but hear the source of inspiration for many of the famous comedians that have surfaced since his time. In his court case sketch, we see that although the justice system claims to ensure fair trial under the law, Richard Pryor uses white lawyers as main actors in criticizing the United States justice system, demonstrating that complicit racism still exists through white lawyers who defend and ignore …show more content…
The moral of the sketch was that it is harder to get a fair trial, if you are black. While the black is guilty until proven innocent, the white is innocent until his or her criminal nature is made very obvious. Richard Pryor used two lawyers, one from the north and the other from the south, who were both complicit in racism to show that racism was not restricted to the south. The Northern lawyer, who argued for the black defendant was complicit in racism in his lack of conviction to the fair trial of the black man as well as in his view that the whites were more evolved beings in his use of Darwinian Theory as a reason why the black man should be acquitted. On the other hand, the white Southern lawyer was complicit in racism in his view that blacks were inherently very good criminals, in defending an evidently delusional and promiscuous liar and his is outright disapproval for fair trial for the blacks in general. Hence, while many of the actions or statements seemed absurd or exaggerated, it is testament to the absurd nature of the so called fair trials and how complicit racism works toward making trials always end up favoring the white