Michael Jackson: Imperfect Icon Who Became America's Global Face

Michael Jackson: Imperfect Icon Who Became America's Global Face
by John Nichols
The Nation
June 26, 2009

This is a big world, with many remote corners where America is known only as a distant and different land. But Michael Jackson touched almost all of them.

For a time, on the basis of the enormous popularity of his Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad albums, he was not just a dominant figure in popular music. He was the dominant figure in popular music. Inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – as a solo artist and as a member of the Jackson 5 -- he earned 13 Grammy Awards and 13 number one singles as a solo performer -- achieving worldwide sales in excess of 750 million albums.

Jackson's 1991 hit "Black or White" charted at number one in the Australia , Austria, Belgium, Cuba, Denmark, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the Unites Kingdom, Zimbabwe and, of course, the United States.

"Black or White" was an angry song with an anti-racist message that was reinforced by a video digitally enhanced to show Jackson smashing windows with graffiti reading "KKK Rules" and "No More Wetbacks." The ubiquitous video featured the singer dancing with Africans, Asians, Native Americans, southern Asians and Russians.

Jackson was not an expressly political artist -- he told Ebony magazine in 1992 that "I never get into politics." Yet, because of his immense celebrity in the 1980s and early 1990s, his determination to treat people with AIDs respectfully (like that of Princess Diana and Elizabeth Taylor) took on significance that was both political and cultural. That commitment was most on display, following the death of Ryan White, when Jackson used public appearances – particularly one at Bill Clinton's inaugural gala -- to plead for more funding of HIV/AIDS research and care.

Jackson's charities were many: programs for refugees and the victims of violence such as Warchild, the "We Are the World" project and his own Heal the World Foundation, as well as the the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, the Red Cross, UNESCO and for many years the United Negro College Fund.

His stumbles, especially in recent years, were disturbing, at times horrifying. There was about this desperate manchild more than a hint of the tragic and self-destructive.

But, as with Elvis Presley and so many brilliant artists whose lives ended after their stars had been tarnished, it will be the iconic influence – an influence stretching across boundaries of race, class, gender and nationality -- that is most remembered when we speak of Michael Jackson, and the ultimately most significant.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/446171/michael_jackson_imperfect_icon_who_became_face_of_america

fuck the most vulnerable in your country.

:eyes:

4'33"

4'33"

Are you by any chance thinking of the claim that Elvis once said: "The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes"?

Elvis never said that.

Guess one could also claim that he "stole" rock and roll music from Black people.

That idea is also nonsense.

Find out the truth about the false allegations claiming Elvis was a racist at:


http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/presley1.asp

Gaaak.

Jackson was a trainwreck. In that regard, maybe he was the face of America.
And not even close to being great. Making lots of money does not define greatness. (He was popular, but so was Britney Spears, another trainwreck.)