We infantilized him as though the man wasn’t essentially omnipotent. In Part Two of Leaving Neverland, famed victims’ rights attorney Gloria Allred asks the simple question that undoubtedly penetrated my consciousness many years ago but still wouldn’t stick: “Why is Michael Jackson, an adult, repeatedly sleeping in the same bed with a young boy?” It was an impossible question to answer sensibly without drawing an obvious conclusion, yet it was easy to reason then - like many reason now - that Michael had no childhood. “Don’t look away,” Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too Movement once said. I separated that Michael from my Michael and carried on: What llamas? What bizarre behavior? What Debbie Rowe? What infatuation with little boys? For years, I ignored the sideshow others were calling “Wacko Jacko” as much as one humanly could. I had loved Black Michael, my subconscious reasoned. Over time, protecting my heart from a changing Michael Jackson happened by the sheer force of cognitive dissonance. Without knowing exactly when it happened, the person who was once my family in my head began to feel like a stranger. A generation of Black dreamers may’ve grown up with him, but Michael Jackson became the largest pop star the globe had ever known. One that was younger, wider, and hella whiter. The nose went from African to European to non-existent. The Afro became a Jheri Curl, which became a white woman’s wig.
Unopened michael jackson bad album skin#
Physically, mocha skin became café au lait, which became the watery tone of 2% milk. Sonically, Black house party’s Off the Wall became mega-stadium’s Thriller, which became bad, or rather, Bad. A once soulful and remarkably gentle, quintessential Black essence, gradually morphed into something unfamiliar, something increasingly unidentifiable. But life happened along the way to Encino Valley, and my Michael changed. There was but one other solution - I’d just have to become a Jackson: Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Michael, Randy, Janet and me. He was a man and I was a girl, and it was a crying shame. Of course, I was 11 years Michael’s junior, which, according to my 11-, 12- and 13-year-old math, meant I was too young to marry him. “No matter how hard / the task may seem / don’t give up our plans / don’t give up our dreams…/ darlin’ keep on reachin out for me / keep on reachin / do it for me /do it for me / ‘cause we’re almost there…” I could twirl to his sweet voice in my room for days. Michael made me want to live and dance and love, to struggle and be. As a highly emotional and intelligent Black child no one had ever quite moved me in such ways. Listening to young Michael belt out virtually perfect songs like “We’re Almost There,” I had a spiritual awakening. An older cousin introduced me to all the soul-stirring music I would’ve missed on my own, classic albums like Forever, Michael that were before my time. As a preteen, my obsession with him was wildly passionate. I have little time to debate simply because in the case of the towering, mythical King of Pop, convincing someone to accept a truth this irreconcilable may not be possible.īut you did not love Michael more than me. I think where we are societally on the issue of abuse and rape matters greatly. I don’t care to convince the unconvinced of anything - neither the ignorant nor the well-informed - but not because it doesn’t matter. the second death of Michael Jackson), I hold what I suspect is an unpopular opinion. But in America at large, and in Black America, specifically, in these first dramatic days after the raw reality of Leaving Neverland (a.k.a. This moment already feels uniquely polarizing. What’s clear is that everyone has firmly decided what they believe. I imagine that every viewer of the four-hour film was as deeply disturbed by it as I was, but I think all of us felt whatever we did for very different reasons. On that same platform, Paul Mooney warned folks not to watch “the bullshit documentary” on Michael Jackson and to “play his music instead.” Michael Jackson Twitter (which is to say Black x White x Young x Old Twitter) started the bold proclamation in the hashtag, #michaeljacksonisinnocen t. In actuality, the questioning and denials began even before the documentary aired earlier this week. The argument for believing the damning conclusion of Neverland - that Michael Jackson was a pedophile - but mostly against it, is mounting. RELATED: neverland: my childhood fantasy and adult nightmare
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