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

[siria.livejournal.com]

I feel a bit shabby repeating what everyone else has already said, but why would anyone call him a revolutionary figure in the fight for equality by African Americans? I think considering the lengths he went to in order to eliminate every visible trace of his racial background from his outer appearance he was SO, so far away from being such a figure!

He was, however, an amazing musician, great performer and a perfectionist when it came to his work. I will absolutely miss him and I'm very sad that he's gone.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Yes, in musical terms I will wholly grant that he was a very important figure.

Pir8fancier makes a good case for why people might consider him revolutionary below. But I have to confess, it only convinced me in thinking America was odder than I had previously thought. Given the weight of numbers, this probably means that I am odd instead ...