Someone asked the question on their Facebook status ‘Why is Michael Jackson death so important?’ Before I can even attempt to answer that question, everyone was shocked on June 25, 2009 when Mr. Jackson was pronounced dead. No matter whom you were, what you believed in, or what you thought of Mr. Jackson, you were shocked! Personally when I found out, my Facebook status read ‘OMG…..I can’t believe it’ and then about 10 minutes later my status read ‘……Over it already’. I may have been over the death of Mr. Jackson but I know about nearly a billion people who weren’t.
Now maybe my total disregard for Mr. Jackson’s death may have been because I did not grow up in the Jackson era (some believe that the Jackson era never really ended). But still I did not understand the flooding of the markets buying Mr. Jackson’s albums and memorabilia or the constant tearing up of fans watching his videos, so what was I missing? The Michael Jackson that I knew about was perhaps a homosexual, child molesting, weird, highly disturbed entertainer.
Not at all saying I believe that Mr. Jackson molested any children, I believe in innocent until proven guilty (But we all know O.J. did it). Yes, this guy could dance his ass off and get millions excited. Yes, he has record album sales, and yes, his sister is Janet Jackson (Okay, that maybe came out of nowhere but Janet and Michael is just so different), but really why is Michael Jackson death such a historical revelation. Many suggest that his death surpass that of Elvis, the Beatles, and some may even say his impact may have been much larger than that of Barack Obama.
Now I can possibly imagine him being larger than Elvis or even the Beatles, but Barack, I thought no way. Barack is the first African American president, 300 years in the making. All Mr. Jackson did was entertained and went double platinum. Michael Jackson is maybe the King of Pop, but Barack is possibly King of the World. The thing that really had me confused was the news media. Back during his court case in 2004, they were bashing Mr. Jackson, even giving him the name wacko-jacko. Then we he was pronounced dead, he was a hit once more. Some may say he became even more of an Icon when he died. The news media couldn’t help but stand up for Mr. Jackson and now they praise him. Even in the world of politics, the same government that was trying to get him thrown in jail, now wanted to have a resolution sent to the house floor(It wasn’t long before speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, shot that down, actually it was the next day)to commemorate his legacy. It took for Mr. Jackson to die for people to realize how important he really was to world.
Now getting back to the question posed “Why is Michael Jackson death so important?” Though I may never be able to admit that Mr. Jackson impact has been larger than that of Obama’s but I will say that he brought happiness to a lot of people obviously. He reminds many people of a simpler time. Though the color of his skin tone may not show it, he broke down race barriers in music, him being the first African American to have his videos played on MTV.
He made it possible for little sister Janet to be such a hit. He showed many African Americans that it is possible to walk on the moon, even if it is in your own home. He brought joy to children world wide and his philanthropy efforts were second to none. Americans, as well as the rest of the world, have chosen to remember Mr. Jackson as he was, a humanitarian of mankind. I believe that it is also important to remember that Jackson died an innocent man(unlike O.J., well he isn’t dead, though his career is), whether we like it or not. To bottom line his life, his daughter, Paris, at eleven years old stated at his memorial service “My father has been the best daddy ever”. Forget that Mr. Jackson was a humanitarian or a philanthropist, forget that he taught you to grab your crouch or taught you the best routine dance ever (thriller), Mr. Jackson was a human, a man, a father, and for that, we pay our respect to a legend. In the words of Rev. Sharpton, “there was nothing strange about Jackson; it was strange what Jackson had to deal with.”
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