What are some of the more hypocritical Michael Jackson tributes you’ve seen the past few days, where people who were once ambivalent towards him are now singing his praises.
All the tributes on the BET Awards last night seemed that way. For years a lot of people in the black community didn’t want to have anything to do with him(not that I can really blame them on account of the child molestation and skin bleaching allegations). Now every black celebrity and politician is rushing out for the privilege of showering him with paeans.
The molestation charges hurt him a lot and it’s never brought up still. People will say “nothing was proved.” Yeah but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.
I often wonder if we found hundreds of pics of young boys on his computer now would we still love him?
On the flip side, what he is a victim of greedy parents, as hard as it is to believe many parents use their kids. In Chicago it’s common for addicted parents to use their kids to buy them drugs. Gangs use kids for drugs, because if they are arrested, the penalty is light.
So it is possible parents can be awful too and use their kids. So Jackson could be a victim of this.
And it’s not just him, Fatty Arbuckle is still rememberd as that guy who raped that girl and killed her, even though it wasn’t true. In fact on his final trial, the jury sent a note not only finding him, not guilty but apologizing.
Michael Jackson was not a traditional R&B artists. He was a pop star. The Pointer Sisters, The Fifth Dimension, and even Whitney Houston, were primarily pop stars who sang R&B songs every now and then, and all were accused of “being too white.”
Notice the HUGE difference between Whitney Houston’s 2nd and 3rd albums, when she responded to the “too white,” critics
But it isn’t just Jackson, we “conveniently” forget facts when someone dies. For instance, when Heath Ledger died from an OD of drugs, we overlook the fact that he was doctor shopping. If Heath Ledger went out and bought pills on the street he’d have been a druggie. But since he was rich enough to go to various doctors and not tell them he’d seen other doctors it’s somehow different? If I did this, I’d be remembered as a poor druggie trying to con the system.
So it happens all the time. It’s just with Jackson’s fame, everyone wants to ride on it. Remember these people who give interviews often get compensated. If not in actual money then in otherways. Or at very least it gets their face exposed.
I recall once watching Regis and Kelly and Kelly’s husband Mark whatever his last name is, said “he likes guest hosting 'cause people see him and offer him acting jobs.”
So you see just getting your face in front of the camera can help.
This happens in real life too. I’m a teacher and over the years we have lost several students. The first time it happened to me, I was a bit amazed. I was teaching at the Vo-Tech school, which meant kids were bussed from the regular school for either a half or full day. I didn’t know the kids that were killed, but my students did. To hear them talk, they were all best friends (or in some cases cousins). One girl went on and on about her “best friend” and she consistently mispronounced his (only slightly unusual African-American) name.
When we lost some boys a couple of years ago in an auto accident, I heard MANY girls talk about how they wished they had never broken up with them, and come to find out they “dated” for about a month in 5th grade or something like that. And anyone that said anything negative about these boys, well, other kids tried to hunt them down and beat them up. To their friends, you couldn’t say a bad word about them now.
I guess a lot of people feel that need to jump onto the, well I hate to say the bandwagon. I mean, I’ve never been a big Michael Jackson fan, just because it’s not my style of music. But I’ve found myself watching VH1 and MTV retrospectives, or at least having them on in the background, all day. I’m not grieving or anything like that, but it still has just made me think about him more and stuff like that.
He was my cousin after all, you know. 