I had that exact awakening during the same timeframe.
Like holy shit - I have been laughing at Chapelle, and Rock, and Pryor, and others, thinking these were just jokes. No, they were never just jokes.
I felt ridiculous that I'd grown up in such a bubble that my reaction had been to think these were solved problems that were being made fun of just because they were sort of part of the zeitgeist a that point.
So much respect for these guys putting it out there, but I feel a little ashamed of how long it took me to start realizing these were NOT solved problems.