Friday, March 29, 2024

Richard Pryor’s Daughter Opens Up About Racism Family Endured in Beverly Hills

Rain Pryor
Rain Pryor

*Richard Pryor’s daughter Rain Pryor says flagrant racism affected countless families in their Beverly Hills neighborhood when she was growing up in the early 70s – particularly againt her interracial family.

Speaking with “Oprah: Where Are They Now?”, the 47-year-old actress opened up about their experience.

“My dad’s Richard Pryor. My mother, Shelley, was a poor Jewish woman,” Rain says. “Imagine, if you will, Beverly Hills in the early ‘70s. Here I am, this mixed-race child [with] my golden skin, my big poufy hair ― because Mom knew nothing about a pressing comb ― [and] my mom’s blond-haired, blue-eyed, looking like Cher, wearing dashikis.”

Richard and Shelly Pryor
Richard and Shelly Pryor

The time period was right on the heels of the famed Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia, which made laws against interracial marriage unenforceable. Prior to that, interracial couples in certain states faced jail time if they wed.

“My parents were only married four years after [the Lovings] were allowed to legally marry,” Rain says. “So, here I am, now born into this. I’m a product of this thing that everyone was against.”

Despite her father’s success and their home being in an affluent area, Rain says her family endured racist horrors.

“What was ironic is to then be in this house in Beverly Hills and having crosses burned on our front lawn in the middle of the night,” she says. “And the word n***r painted on the side of our home.”

Watch below:

Rain details more of her childhood and growing up as Richard Pryor’s daughter on “Oprah: Where Are They Now?”, airing Saturday, Aug. 20, at 10 p.m. ET on OWN.

Below, Rain says Richard Pryor was a strict dad.

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