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That was Jamie Foxx’s opening statement at the 2009 BET Awards, a show that turned into a tribute to Michael Jackson after the legendary entertainer died suddenly on June 26, just four days earlier. The entire show was a celebration of Jackson’s music and legacy — and rightfully so, only a handful of artists in music history can claim to have so rich a body of work and as potent an influence on popular culture. But the outpouring of love and affection for Michael Jackson that occurred in the immediate aftermath of his death is just as poignant as it is appropriate.
In the last 15 years of his life, Jackson’s eccentricities were what the media and public focused on — after all, he only released two albums during that time, so there wasn’t a wealth of music to take attention away from his increasingly strange behavior. Many in the black community painted Jackson as the misunderstood victim of a racist media onslaught — the latest example of a black man on top being torn down by the white system. But the truth — as it often is — is much more complex. Many black people were turned off by Michael Jackson’s latter years — the changes to his skin and face, the fixation with children, and most notably, the child molestation charges.
We cannot pretend that there weren’t those in the black community disturbed by his extensive cosmetic surgery, which seemed to try and erase his “blackness.” His own brother, Jermaine, took a shot at Michael in his infamous and controversial single “Word to the Badd.” We cannot pretend that only white people abandoned Jackson after the molestation charges. Comedians like Chris Rock and Katt Williams openly voiced their disdain for Jackson and the allegations. Many were irritated with what they perceived was Jackson’s need to reclaim his black identity only when he was in trouble — as in when his album didn’t sell and he railed against a “racist” Tommy Mottola; or when he went to trial in 2005 and surrounded himself with members of the Nation of Islam.
Jackson was a giant, and should be celebrated as such. But, as we rail against his supposed “persecution” by the “evil, white media,” let’s not conveniently forget what some of us said about him before June 26, 2009. –todd williams
