Tag: Rick

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Entertainment

Coming to Phrases With the Legacy of Rick James

Coming to Terms With the Legacy of Rick James

“We’re being sat in the back of the bus, television-style,” he tells a reporter. “This isn’t ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ There are Black people here, and we make music. Don’t we exist?”

He had the loud, unapologetic flair of a Black man who grew up powerless, getting beat up by white kids on the block, and who proved revolutionary in another white space: the music industry. In 1981, he called out law enforcement brutality in the song “Mr. Policeman.” “I’m very vocal about injustice,” he says in archival footage. “I’ve never been one to bite my tongue and I never will.”

So, in some ways, James was a hero. Even Jenkins, a musician himself, relates to him. “I was someone who liked rock ’n’ roll, hip-hop, skateboarding — a broad range of things. And I was sort of an oddball,” recalled the director, known for “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men” and “Word Is Bond.” He continued, “But today, you can have rappers who are influenced by heavy metal, and no one’s going to say, ‘You’re a white boy or you’re a sellout.’ Rick was an early proponent of that.”

But the empowerment he gained from his success also granted him excess and entitlement he’d never experienced growing up. “You mix all of those early learnings with an environment where no one tells you no, that math adds up to a bad equation,” Jenkins continued.

This “bad equation” included, by the singer’s own estimate, a $6,000-to-$8,000 weekly cocaine addiction, a parade of women in and out of his home — some of whom, the film claims, he videotaped performing sexual acts at parties. “Daddy had his share of women, that’s for sure,” Ty James says in the film.

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Business

CNN Drops Rick Santorum After Dismissive Feedback About Native People

CNN Drops Rick Santorum After Dismissive Comments About Native Americans

Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator and Republican presidential candidate, has been dropped from his role as a CNN political commentator amid controversy over recent remarks in which he seemed to erase the role of Native Americans in U.S. history.

Matt Dornic, head of strategic communications at CNN, confirmed in an email on Saturday that the network had “parted ways” with the former senator.

Mr. Santorum’s departure from CNN came after comments he made about Native Americans at a Young America’s Foundation event last month.

“We birthed a nation from nothing — I mean, there was nothing here,” Mr. Santorum said at the event. “I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”

Days after the event, Mr. Santorum walked back his comments on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time.”

“I misspoke,” Mr. Santorum told the program’s host, Chris Cuomo. “I was talking about the founding of our country. I had given a long talk about the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the ideas behind those, and that I was saying we sort of created that anew, if you will. And I was not trying to dismiss Native Americans.”

In a statement on Saturday, Mr. Santorum said: “When I signed on with CNN, I understood that I would be providing commentary that is not regularly heard by the typical CNN viewer. I greatly appreciate the opportunity CNN provided me over the past four years and I am committed to continuing the fight for our conservative principles and values.”

After Mr. Santorum’s comments were made public, many called for him to be dropped from the network, including Fawn R. Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians.

“It wasn’t a matter of if, but when,” Ms. Sharp said on Twitter on Saturday after Mr. Santorum’s departure from CNN was reported. “Justice is served.”

The National Congress of American Indians did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

Before Mr. Santorum’s departure, Ms. Sharp said in a letter dated April 26 that any media organization should fire him or face a boycott from more than 500 tribal nations.

“Rick Santorum is an unhinged and embarrassing racist who disgraces CNN and any other media company that provides him a platform,” Ms. Sharp wrote in the letter. “Do you stand with white supremacists justifying Native American genocide, or do you stand with Native Americans?”

After Mr. Santorum’s comments in April, the Native American Journalists Association also called on CNN to dismiss the former senator and urged its members to avoid working with the network.

“With a lack of accountability or ethics around multiple racist and insensitive comments from CNN staff, the Native American Journalists Association urges its members to avoid working with the network to avoid harassment and racism,” the association said in a statement. “NAJA also calls on advertisers, funders and journalism diversity organizations to withdraw their support from CNN indefinitely.”

Categories
Politics

Biden to appoint ocean scientist Rick Spinrad to move NOAA

Biden to nominate ocean scientist Rick Spinrad to head NOAA

President Biden announced Thursday that he would appoint Rick Spinrad, professor of oceanography at Oregon State University, to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the country’s leading climate science agency.

The announcement may mark a new chapter for NOAA that has been a source of tension at times for former President Donald J. Trump, who publicly engaged with the agency’s scientists and failed to get any of his candidates to take the Senate-approved leadership take. NOAA has been without a Senate-approved leader since its inception in 1970.

In 2019, Mick Mulvaney, who was Mr. Trump’s acting White House Chief of Staff at the time, urged NOAA to reject statements by its weather forecasters that contradicted the president’s statements about the path of Hurricane Dorian. Last year, the government removed NOAA’s chief scientist from his role and added people who questioned the science of climate change to senior roles at the agency.

Dr. Spinrad is a former chief scientist at NOAA, where he also ran the agency’s research office and the National Ocean Service. The timing of Mr Biden’s announcement was remarkable – Earth Day amid a two-day climate change summit pledging the United States to cut emissions in half by the end of the decade.

The selection of Dr. Spinrad was quickly praised by scientific politicians on Thursday evening.

“We commend the Biden administration for continuing to nominate credible and well-qualified candidates who understand the urgency of the climate crisis,” said Sally Yozell, director of the environmental security program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank, in a statement.

Counteradministrator Jonathan White, the president and chief executive officer of the Ocean Guidance Consortium, named Dr. Spinwheel as “an excellent choice for this important role”.