The Meaning of MJ

A lot of smart people have weighed in on Michael Jackson’s life and legacy. Here are just a few takes…

First up, Tammy Johnson of Colorlines (via Isak):

You could say he was just another celebrity, another pop star, the King of Pop, but Michael Jackson did have an impact on our society. For his time, he made it ok for white girls to scream at a black man, to say that they wanted him. He made it ok for white boys to do the moonwalk. But you know, it wasn’t ok for Michael Jackson to be Michael Jackson. It was written all over his face — or the face that he changed into. And that’s a shame.

Adrienne Maree Brown on the responsibility of his fans:

When it became clear that the boy’s face we had loved had become the
face of a man who didn’t love himself; we judged him. We tore at him
and he fell apart. He was living proof of the impact of our rabid pop
culture, an early sacrifice to the new mechanisms of fame which allow
no privacy, no time to learn, no mistakes.

Still, he kept producing for us.

When the rumors and the truth were all too prevalent (the children,
both his and others), and he wasn’t getting the psychological support
and accountability he needed, we turned from him and derided him. We
made the distinction of loving the child, but ridiculing the man.

Toure at the Daily Beast on how Jackson broke the color barrier with his music:

I like Off the Wall and Dangerous better, but I can’t help but think about Thriller’s massive socio-cultural impact. Rev. Al Sharpton referred to Michael as a pre-Obama Obama-esque figure in that he’s a black man who knows how to make millions of blacks and whites fall in love with him. He’s an integrationist, a racial unifier. He made two pop songs as overtly about race as anyone’s ever made: Ebony and Ivory with Paul McCartney and Black or White. He was a Motown guy, after all. But he left Berry Gordy’s house and went to CBS/Epic, a big-time label, to forge an adult solo career. CBS pushed his record as hard as they did their huge white stars and Off the Wall was a huge crossover success: young Michael was established as not an artist for black fans but an artist for everyone at a time when that was rare. Four years later, when Thriller came out it broke the radio color barrier: black and white stations played its singles until MTV, which had not previously played videos by black artists, had to play Michael. For a while they played Thriller every hour at the top of the hour. Back then he was MTV’s Jackie Robinson.

Jill Tubman at Jack and Jill Politics on Jackson’s mixed legacy:

The true tragedy of Michael Jackson is that his genius died
long before he did. He remains one of the most seminal artists of the
late 20th century. But his innovations stopped as he retreated into a
dark strange world of excess. He was an incredible philanthropist who
also was sadly a pedophile. […]

For black people, he leaves
a mixed legacy. His famous family’s music is iconic yet their
dysfunction was humiliating. He was at on