I just can't believe it
I truly never thought a celebrity's death would leave me so sad that i'd cry. He was awesome and i'm happy MTV is playing music again in honor of Michael Jackson. I am sure he saved lives/provided escape with his music because in the hardest part of my pre teen years in my imagination he was a friend. I am not even embarrassed by that. I wanted to be like him. I even remember giving my family my own version of his mid 90's HBO concert. Glove and all, haha. I'm glad his children are old enough to remember him and that they gave him joy in the end. It was sad to see his daughter crying being consoled by his Mom...i hope the best for them. It's the saddest thing when a parent goes. God bless them.
I went to the Apollo yesterday to pay a small tribute to him. Everyone was outside in the rain singing his songs. On the way home everyone was blasting his songs on the radio. I have never seen more loyal fans than MJ fans.
James Baldwin on Michael Jackson
The Michael Jackson cacophony is fascinating in that it is not about Jackson at all. I hope he has the good sense to know it and the good fortune to snatch his life out of the jaws of a carnivorous success. He will not swiftly be forgiven for having turned so many tables, for he damn sure grabbed the brass ring, and the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo has nothing on Michael.
All that noise is about America, as the dishonest custodian of black life and wealth; the blacks, especially males, in America; and the burning, buried American guilt; and sex and sexual roles and sexual panic; money, success and despair--to all of which may now be added the bitter need to find a head on which to place the crown of Miss America.
Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated--in the main, abominably--because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires.
