With due respect to ...

[blamebrampton]

... those of you who are mourning him, I am probably going to bite the next person who tells me that Michael Jackson was a revolutionary figure in the fight for equality by African Americans. I hasten to add that this has so far been three in real life and double the number of media foik: my flist has been a bastion of sanity.

Aesthetic irony aside, it belittles genuine revolutionary figures. And I am not even talking about political giants like Dr King; there were many entertainers who walked a far more difficult path earlier and with more grace and charity, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Sammy Davis Jnr and Nina Simone.

I'm all for people loving the heroes they choose, but I would love a bit of perspective at times like these. And perhaps a little sense of history.

Flistees who are just missing the singing and dancing, I apologise for intruding on your sad day. 

Comments

[sarcasticpixie.livejournal.com]

Just popping in to note that on a personal level, I'd be WAY sadder if Prince had died. I'm a few years too young to remember MJ as anything besides a Grade-A nutcase, but Prince! I love that little man and his absurdly sexy songs. He's merely a Grade-C nutcase, what with being a Jehovah's Witness and a vegan (which are perfectly common and not totally unreasonable life changes to make) and renaming himself O(+> (which is, admittedly, not, but which is probably a more healthy way to rebel against a record company trying to own your soul than, say, building Neverland Ranch and hanging around small children).