LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- The racist outburst of comedian Michael Richards has led fellow comic Paul Mooney to denounce the use of the "N-word."
"Well, white folks, you shouldn't have ever made up the word," Mooney used to say in his routine. "I say nigga 100 times every morning; it makes my teeth white."
But Mooney pledged Monday to stop using the word after seeing the video of Michael Richards using it and other racial slurs to attack hecklers at a recent performance, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"I've used it and abused it, and I never thought I'd say this," Mooney said, but Richards "is my Dr. Phil ... he's cured me."
Mooney, who wrote for the late Richard Pryor and the TV show "In Living Color," joined with African-American leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., to get the world to stop using the word.
They endorsed an NAACP campaign to "just say 'no' to the N-word."
