Elizabeth Pryor has been thinking about the N-word for a long time. And she’s in a unique position to do so. Not only is she a Smith College historian of race in America. She’s also the child of a white Jewish mother and a black father, who happened to be Richard Pryor.

The iconic comedian, who rose to fame in the 1970s, was one of the first performers to pepper the N-word throughout his routines.

Elizabeth Pryor now makes the history and meaning of the N-Word an important part of her teaching and scholarship, though she refuses to say the full word – ever.