December 6, 2006

"Daddy, the whores need to be paid."

No one should ever have to say that. But, good luck to Rain.
She is the daughter of an exceedingly complicated African American icon... and an equally complicated blond, blue-eyed Jewish woman who fervently believed that she was black....

When she was 4, her mother introduced Rain to her father.... [H]e took one look at her and said, "Ain't denying this one's mine!"...

"So yeah... he was misogynistic, mercurial, unpredictable and violent. But he was also my daddy, and sometimes, when he held me close, I looked into his big sad eyes and I knew he loved me. And that's the part I want to remember."

9 comments:

Tibore said...

"She is the daughter of ... an equally complicated blond, blue-eyed Jewish woman who fervently believed that she was black."

Uh... a blond, blue-eyed Jewish woman who believed she was black???

She didn't mean literally black, right?

Right?

Anyone?...

Meade said...

Tibore, the entire article is worth reading if only because I think you'll see that it is she, Rain Pryor, who thought of herself as black -- not that her blond, blue-eyed Jewish mother was black, although, apparently, in significant ways, her blond blue-eyed mother was blacker than Richard:

...Rain's mother, Shelley Bonis, was married to Richard Pryor for about two years before they divorced. The book describes her mother as a jive-talking dancer with a fondness for wearing Afro wigs -- it was the '60s -- and quoting Malcolm X. (It was her politically conscious mother, Pryor claims, who nudged Richard, then a mild-mannered, Cosbyesque comic, into exploring racially charged topics in his act.)...

...The NAACP gave [Rain] an acting award. But she says she still couldn't get past casting directors who thought she wasn't black enough or white enough or Jewish enough or pretty enough or ugly enough to do whatever it was that they needed her to do...

Ken Stalter said...

Not related to this post, but...

What's going on, Prof Althouse? The blog feels like it has a new energy lately--a different vibe. I like it.

Ann Althouse said...

Ken: I don't know. Either that side blog... that crossword puzzle... or... the last day of class.

Gahrie said...

Am I the only one who has heard of the term wiggers?

Ruth Anne Adams said...

There really is a White Rain.

Ann Althouse said...

I remember that brand of shampoo. It was quite common.

alphie said...

From the title of the post, I thought it was about the recent interview Bush did with Brit Hume about his dad's growing influence on Iraq policy...

Sasha Amorosa said...

"Well, if there can be Purple Rain, there can also be Black Rain"


If there is Purple + White Rain, there could also be Pink + Blue Rain.