Richard Pryor, who died this past weekend, vaulted into superstardom with his comedy album called That N***a’s Crazy.
 
In fact, that N-word figured prominently in Pryor’s comedy routines for years. It’s too bad that so many of us seem to have forgotten that, in the latter part of his career, Pryor rejected the word and came to regret his overuse and abuse of it.
 
The epiphany came shortly after Pryor visited Africa. He saw black folks in positions of power and authority. He asked himself “Did you see any niggers there?” When he answered in the negative, he realized that he had been wrong to use the word himself so many years. Pryor resolved never to use that word in reference to another black person ever again.
 
What’s interesting is that his career seemed to go downhill from that moment. It’s as if, once Pryor rejected the use of the N-word, we no longer had any use for him. But there are some black folks around today who need to drink whatever Pryor was drinking on his trip to Africa.
 
The use of words like “nigger” and “sambo” -- once routine epithets spewing forth from the mouths of white bigots -- now come primarily from the mouths of black folks. And the targets of the epithets are usually other black folks.
 
Take, for instance, blogger Steve Gilliard, who couldn’t resist recently calling Michael Steele, the first black lieutenant governor of Maryland, a “sambo.”

There are several definitions of “sambo.” Among the first seems to have been a definition that comes from several dictionaries: a black person in Latin America who also had Native American or white blood. Somehow whites in the United States got wind of the word and used it to apply to blacks in a nasty and derogatory manner.
 
So what do some of us do? Why, the same thing, of course. And the way some of us are throwing the word “sambo” around, we’re clearly trying to out-racist white racists.
 
The same can be said of the N-word, but with so many black offenders who are determined to keep it in operation, it’s hard to put any one name at the top of the list. But I figure Kanye West -- fresh off his “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” gaffe -- is as good an offender as any.
 
At a recent concert in Baltimore, West told whites in the audience that he would “allow” them to use the N-word as they sang along with his hit “Gold Digger.” They only too eagerly agreed. It must have made for quite a scene.
 
White folks in Maryland -- never known as a “friend of the Negro” state -- standing in an audience singing “I ain’t sayin’ she’s a gold digger, but she ain’t f---in’ with no broke n---er.”
 
You know, there are a lot of white folks who are going to get themselves pimp-slapped listening to that goofy Kanye West.
 
But West isn’t our only goof, just our most prominent one. Other rappers use the word like it’s darn near a religious obligation. And the word figured prominently in what has to be the most degrading piece of stereotypical, racist trash Hollywood has ever put out about black folks.
 
No, I’m not talking about “Birth of a Nation.” I’m not talking about “Gone With The Wind,” either. I’m not even talking about the abominably racist 1940s cartoon “Scrub Me Mama With a Boogie Beat.”

No, I’m talking about “Soul Plane.”
 
Remember “Soul Plane?” It “starred” Method Man, Mo’Nique, Brian Hooks, D.L. Hughley and some other black folks you think would have known better. It also starred Snoop Dogg, who probably didn’t.
 
In fact, it’s Snoop Dogg who proves that using the N-word should be the exception, not the rule. Some black folks use it appropriately. Cartoonist Aaron MacGruder used it to superb satiric effect on the premiere episode of his show “The Boondocks” which is now a Cartoon Network program, as well as a syndicated comic strip.
 
There is a time and place when black folks should, indeed, use the N-word. But it should be done sparingly. And it should be saved for extremely outrageous instances, like when Snoop stood in front of television cameras and proudly proclaimed that executed Crips co-founder Stanley “Tookie” Williams was “our Martin Luther King.”
 
Can I get a hearty “Nigger, please” chorus going for that one?