March 2007 Interview: Paul Mooney
Download the interview in mp3 format
Intro:
Paul Mooney is a comedic genius. He has written for Richard Pryor, Sanford and Son, Saturday Night Live, In Living Color and most recently, Chapelle’s show. A true Blackademic, Mooney has spent his comedic career educating, offending, shocking and entertaining all around the globe. His politically charged material offers a sharp social critique and stimulates anger, laughter and thought. I caught up with Paul after a hilarious show in New York. Here’s your chance to check out the interview; Paul Mooney.
Pierce Freelon:
My first question. Your stance on the n-word. I know it’s a personal choice, but you talked about one person being able to change the world with his actions. So I was wondering if you could talk about your personal choice to do that and not use it and what you think the impact has been thus far.
Paul Mooney:
Oh it’s been great. I’ve gotten a lot negative comments but much more positive. I’m just not using it and I just want to live in a world without the n-word, which my world will be without it. I mean, I did a show tonight for and hour and twenty minutes, I didn’t use it. I did a sold out show with Dick Gregory who uses it, and he said he’s gonna use it because when he was down south with Martin Luther King, the sheriff ran up on a horse and called them both the n-word and said if you cross the line I’ll kill you, n-word folks and I don’t care what that n-loving president of yours - meaning Kennedy - has to say. So he said he was going to die saying it. And I can understand his affair, his relationship to the word. And I understand why the young people wanna hold on to it because everything has been taking from us and like Richard Pryor’s old joke, let me check my penis to make sure you haven’t taken that. So it could be spit, they just don’t want white society to take anything from them. And they’ll say we spell the word with an “a” instead of an “e” and you know, it’s a goat. And whether you sauté’ it or barbeque it, it’s still a goat. And for me, I just don’t want to be a part of it because it’s become an equal opportunity word. The young Latins, the young Whites, the young Asians, they’re all using it and I just don’t want to be involved in it anymore, I don’t want to be a part of it. And I’ve been touched, I’ve seen the view on the mountaintop, I’m just making that choice, I’m not saying it.
PF:
And it’s powerful and beautiful as young brothers; I appreciate that stance because I’m trying to take the same one.
PM:
It’s not easy, it’s not an easy thing, I have to be very aware of it, you know? I’m a N-word junkie. Like, Whoopie Goldberg had called me and she had said “I know that you’re the ambassador for the N-word I’ve seen you all over the news and I’ve got to call you for a pass because I have to curse some Black people out Friday and after that, I won’t say it anymore”. Which I thought was very funny.
PF:
That is funny.
PM:
And also that white man who walked up to me and said “oh I saw you on the news you’re not using the n-word anymore” I said no, he said, “well, there’s goes half your vocabulary” I thought that was very funny he made me laugh.
PF:
Wow. Well, here’s another question. In the crowd just now, I could tell a lot of people were uncomfortable, a lot of white people were uncomfortable and I think that’s important when you’re discussing race, you know that some people…
PM:
Well, that little boy that left. I will bet money on it, he’s a Jew. Because what I was saying about them being Black was too much for him. I’ll bet you any money that he was, you’ll find out later who it was, you will because he’s going to talk about it.
PF:
So why is it so important, why do think people get so uncomfortable.
PM:
Because race is more important than religion and sex. It’s more important. It will always come up. There’s no escaping it. You know the one thing white people used to hold on when I was a kid coming up on my teens, “well we don’t like to mix the sororities and fraternities we don’t want mixed dating it brings about mixed kids and it’s unfair”. All those old excuses. I mean, what bullshit to say you don’t want mixed races when you yourself on purpose have mixed race. You’re a perpetrator on it, to break us like horses, to mix our blood. Mulatto, man-made, mule. Took a donkey and a horse, you understand? If the races were not mixed and you say it, I can understand it’s thyable, it’s feasible. But for you to create it. It’s like you say, “well, I don’t want Frankenstein coming here”. You know what I mean? But you just created this monster. What are you talking about you don’t want it to come here. You’re the creator. You know?
PF:
Well, my last question kinda ties in with that. I thought one of the most interesting parts of the set was when you were telling Latinos and the people: you black too! So I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that and why it’s important that we recognize. I mean people don’t realize that the Puerto Ricans were also enslaved Africans.
PM:
Oh yea, and everybody is, and it all comes from that. White comes from Black. Two Black people can make a white baby. Two white people cannot make a Black baby. Black is powerful and we have to know that. When these people were in trees and caves we were drinking out of golden cups. When these white folks were running around talking about the world is flat, and they believed that, the long ships, the Moors the Black people we were sailing everywhere. We knew the world wasn’t flat.
PF:
People don’t know that, though.
PM:
Yeah, but they need to know it.
PF:
Yea, and I appreciate you for kicking knowledge like you did tonight.
PM:
Yea, yea, yea
