Strive to be white?
So then, by your logic, those people they hung around with were striving to be black?
Or doesn’t it work that way?
The handful of times I was around O.J. Simpson (ages ago), the only white person in the group was Nicole. Now, that’s not saying much I suppose, since those other black people may have all been striving to be white too…
Michael Jackson seems pathetically twisted and a danger on one level or another, to any child around him. There are folks who will defend him because they see that as defending their race. Much as some people will let a single, isolated, bad example stand for an entire race, as well. But we knew that, right?
Holy crap, I had to back up to make sure that indeed, it was **Polycarp ** asking for pics.
Add my brain to the melted mass.
Well, I must say this is a rather inflammatory title for such a lame rant. First, I don’t care one way or another about MJ’s trial, the jury selection, all them nutty folks what come out to support him, and such like. I really don’t care if MJ pleads guilty, is found guilty, or is found not guilty. I really don’t see any of these things as anything worthy of pitting. What I’m slightly pissed off at is how the media keeps sensationlizing this story. Frankly, it’s not news! Apart from the tinfoil hat brigade what’s thinkin’ up alien invasions and MJ’s persecution at the hands of the government or white folks, well, them folks got too much time on they hands. And, upon further reflection, so does Otto.
Otto, you really ought to be ashamed of yourself stirrin’ up all this sand over nothing. :mad: What you should have been pittin’ is them damn idiot parents what let they kids spend the night over at MJ’s when it’s already been reported that he’s settled out of court with a few families over this stuff. Whether he’s innocent or guilty of this latest mess has yet to be determined. However, I think that we can all safely conclude that MJ is a moron. That’s not news for the discerning eye.
Q: What’s the difference between Michael Jackson and grocery bags?
A: One is made of mostly recycled plastic and should be kept away from young children for their safety, and the other is used to carry groceries.
No, no he’s not. But I believe he is indeed white. I am too. It was quite a shock to me during a class last semester (one on minority politics) that during a discussion of the way black people regard celebrities, that a student said, “But he’s Michael Jackson!”
The guy didn’t mean that Mr. Jackson couldn’t have molested a child - or that he should get away with it because he’s Michael Jackson - just that it was sorta painful to see the guy being prosecuted, even if it was his own fault.
And frankly, I don’t see why anyone could doubt that some folks in power do have it in for black people. Not to the extent of witchhunts designed to destroy them, as some black people claim. But is there any doubt that some of the cops working the OJ case were corrupt racists? That wasn’t fifty years ago, either.
I think a lot of folks don’t understand what a situation is like if they’ve never experienced it. Frankly, my own knowledge of things that have happened in this country isn’t enough to make me give into paranoid fantasies about the CIA introducing drugs or AIDS into the ghetto, but it’s enough to make it clear, in my opinion, that bad shit does happen to black people, and that unfortunately, black Americans are often the victim of corruption of those in power.
And you see it too. Otto just doesn’t see it yet. I hope he develops the awareness to relate his own situation as one type of minority to that of others. From the inside, you can see a lot of things that aren’t obvious to outsiders. Just as it’s hard for me to explain the pervasiveness of homophobia to well-meaning but skeptical straight folks, it’s hard to explain racism to white people.
But Michael Jackson? Yeah, I’m inclined to lean towards “guilty”. And to think the parents, frankly, have some culpability in letting their kids meet him. And that it’s sad that he doesn’t have handlers to prevent him from doing the crazy things that his crazy mind tells him to do. I mostly pity the guy - it’s just too bad he’s so rich that no one ever says “No” to him.
Let me clarify: people who title a thread “<insert ethnicity or race here> people are stupid” are stupid. Fucking morons in fact.
Yes, I am aware that my sample size is small. Apparently, so is the maggoty prune that passes for a brain in the OP’s possibly misshapen skull.
Jesus. He makes one inflammatory thread title, as an (apparently really bad) joke, and this? Man, you must have high blood pressure.
Sounds like he’s been gearing up for jury duty.
In fairness, the gentle and kind Mr. Polycarp didn’t ask for pictures, he asked for proof. It was my perverse little brain that leapt to pictures. Presumably LifeOnWry could take a DNA test or something.
And Guinastasia; I’ve been on Mars, in a cave, with my fingers in my ears.
Ooops, I forgot I was in the pit. I guess I should take it over to GD.
Him sleeping in the bed isn’t even circumstantial evidence. I mean, I sleep with a cat in my bed. That’s not exactly proof that I’m engaging in bestiality, you know?
I appreciate the fact that you are trying to see things from other peoples’ perspectives. I will take you at your word when you say Otto isn’t the asshole I assumed he was. I think I can help you understand why some black people may be more reticent to accept the reality of the situations many famous/powerful black people find themselves in. You have to realize that blacks in America are collectively judged by the behavior of individual black people. When a white guy screws up, its his problem. When a black guy screws up, it often creates a problem for every black person.
When Jayson Blair was caught making up articles at the NY Times, two of the main questions being asked was how his behavior will effect other black journalists, and how affirmative action is a bad idea because it puts people like him in positions they aren’t qualified for. These are two questions that should have never come up given the circumstances of the case. Without fail, whenever a black guy screws up, there is someone there to make it a race issue. Just as it’s hard for people to admit, or hear about the flaws their family members have. It is often hard for blacks to see many of these situations as they exist.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned steamrollers crushing MJ’s CDs and DVDs and filling up the landfills.
While I agree that your point has merit a good deal of the time (I’m not sure I’d go as far as “without fail”, but yea, it happens a lot), you need to consider the flip side of the coin-people manufacturing race issues where none exist to further their own agendas. I recall Jessie Jackson flying into Chicago on a giant cloud of racial indignation when a black man was shot by a police officer a few years ago. By God, justice was going to be had for that poor innocent black man, cruelly gunned down by the man! Upon reaching O’Hare, he was informed that the police officer who did the shooting was also black, whereupon he got right back on a plane and went home. What happened to “justice” for the poor dead victim? How about Rodney King? I don’t believe that he was beaten by the police because he was black, he was beaten by the police because he was a petty criminal resisting arrest. I DO believe that he was beaten a lot more than a white suspect would have been, because of his race, but I don’t believe that his race was the precipitating cause of the beating. See the difference? Yet because the video was so compelling, it was grabbed by every activist in the world and hyped until it seemed the LAPD grabbed poor old innocent Rodney King, minding his own business, busy taking meals and medicine to hungry shut-ins and sick orphans, and beat him black and blue without provocation. ( Note that I am not condoning the behavior of the officers involved, obviously it was a gross over application of force that should never have occurred, and the officer involved deserved to be strictly punished, but I am condemning the way the circumstances were completely ignored in a rush to make political hay).
Have their really been all that many comments by Blacks who say that this is racial? The only one I’ve heard say that is MJ’s father.
Those who say that it is racial might want to explain why the powers that be have waited all of these years to “get” Michael. Who are these rich people out to get him? Did they arrange for these charges to be brought? Did they trick Michael into admitting that he sleeps with little boys in his bed?
I have no idea if Michael is guilty. He does make me feel uncomfortable and I think he is emotionally crippled. I just don’t know how far that goes. And I miss the Michael of the 1980’s.
In one bit of film that I saw, one thing really put me off. He was giving out Christmas gifts to children and it was very obvious to me that he was just going through the motions with the kids. There was no warmth at all. He didn’t get down on their level. He didn’t look them in the eye or smile or talk with them or pay attention to what they were saying. It was chilling. Of course, it was just a little bit of film, but it was cold.
Amen!!! smoke…fire…all that previous evidence. Not too difficult to follow. Except apparently for the OJ Jury, and the CEMJ defenders.
As for OJ, moronic jury. the “oh no i can’t get the gloves on” fake crap. good grief, can’t believe they bought that. Yeah, if I spread my fingers wide enough too, even I could make it look like those gloves wouldn’t fit me, and I wear XS.
In the cases I’ve seen, such as the OJ one, it frequently turns out to be the person who screwed UP, and/or their defense team, who make it a race issue.
Had the OJ case been with Joe Namath for instance, and had the same evidence, I’d bet several paychecks he’d have been in jail in a heartbeat.
I really believe, in his mind, he had manufactured the change of his skin tone over many years as a build-up to a monumental and epic release of his Magnus opus, “it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white”. From interviews and press releases around that time, it seems he really believed that this overwhelming message of racial harmony (and his own changed appearance whilst remaining the same person underneath) would truly end all racism and unite the world in peace and love. Or something. He has gone [even more] ‘weird’ since his huge and powerful message of goodwill failed to reach the masses and elevate him to the status of demi-God, as he no doubt hoped it would.
Even if Jackson is acting entirely innocently in his mind, even if all they do is sleep, even if they never cuddle or touch during this shared sleep time in the same bed, do you not honestly see that there is still something fundamentally wrong with someone who believes there is no problematic issue with sharing a bed with a young child who is not your own? It is not remotely comparable to sharing a bed with a beloved pet.
{pssst, most of the time I agree with you CCL) but…to aro
THANK YOU!!!
And may I add…
ParTIClarly if you have been WARNED about it and had to pay out the nose before because of the same damned thing?
You have children CCL? How would you feel about some strange man sleeping with your daughter? Oh, “all innocence and stuff”. Why is it that because it’s boys, it’s all “peter pan-y” and supposedly “well, maybe he really is just too mixed up to realize how inappropriate it is”.
Would people feel the same if it were girl children?