I See Black People:The Blessing of Death and Life Featuring Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was more than a gifted singer, dancer and beatboxer…yes beatboxer (youtube it…you’ll be amazed). Michael was more than simply a great artist…greater than any of his peers as far as a complete package (sorry Prince…you were the more gifted musician than Michael but not the more gifted complete package). If that was all Michael was then that would be enough for the world…and for many that is perhaps their connection. But I can tell you that as a young Black boy from Brooklyn, NY growing up in the early 80’s he was more than that to me. Michael was the first artist that made everyone say “I See Black People”.

You see Michael was the first artist that made White people want to actually BE a Black man and not simply admire his talent. Sure you had the great Nat King Cole, Ray Charles, James Brown, Stevie Wonder and a host of other Motown greats. Yes you had Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, the likes of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Cosby and even the social behemoths Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm “El Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz” X. But none of them made Non-Black people want to BE this Black man from the humble streets of Gary, Indiana. None of them had Russian Women, Pakistani Men, Japanese teenagers AND straight thugged out Brownsville, Brooklyn Project Black brothers pretending to be him in the mirror. I bet even Ronald Reagan tried to moonwalk at least once.

Michael Jackson was the first Black artist to breakthrough MTV’s racism. In the 80’s before MTV’s desire for money superceded their racism by giving the greenlight to Yo MTV Raps they would never play music videos featuring Black artists. But even they could not ignore the dynamic freight train with the dazzling smile, calm demeanor and electrifying stage presence. So this is what I mean when I say “I See Black People”. To MTV Black Americans were like Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (google it youngins). But Michael made you stand and recognize. Michael became BIGGER than the BIGGEST Rock star to that point Elvis Presley. And while he was not outwardly political he never denied his Blackness and even stated so emphatically during the controversy over his lightened skin. “I AM an African-American!” he said in a televised interview. Before Oprah and Obama there was Michael Jackson.

This leads me to my conclusion regarding The Blessing of Death For the Living. What I mean is that Michael’s sudden death is something we can use as an opportunity to remember death and life. All of us will die. None of us know when we will die and most of us will wish we had “more time”. But we have the time now. The time to think about what comes after this life. The time to think about who created us. The time to think about what the Creator made us for in the first place. Ultimately why are we here? Yes I loved Michael Jackson just like most of you. And even with what I said about the social implications of his stardom it came at a great great cost to himself, his family and even to humanity in a sense because it contributed to our culture of celebrity. The Quran, and I’m sure other holy books, talks about how temporary this world is and how it is but a fleeting moment. Did Michael think that at 25 he was already a middle aged man? But that could be you…could be me. I may die at 50 or 60. I may die tonight which means I was middle aged when I was a teenager. But we don’t think about that. Even if you live to be 100 or you’re some sort of genetic freak and live to be 130 is that really a long time? No it isn’t. Poof…gone. Now what? So what are you doing with your life and is it really just play, sport, do whatever…then what?

What I think about with Michael Jackson was how even the “King” of Pop was never at the top forever even in this life’s definition of forever. Michael became popular in the late 60’s and had an unprecedented run into the mid 1990’s even. He had 30 years of pop culture relevance with 20 of those years probably at #1 icon status. Not even Elvis had that. And he never lost his fame. But even his iconic status was temporary. He was supplanted by other singers. The world changed. We will no longer have Madonna’s and Michael’s and Whitney’s or Celine Dion’s. Those monumental iconic stars have waned. No one will ever sell 25 million Thriller albums again. EVER! Look how temporary even the temporary life we are living is. So it makes me think about the permanence of eternity. Michael’s death can be a blessing for the living. And Michael was a very spiritual person. I would like to think that Michael would want for us to remember our own mortality and strengthen our connection to The Creator as his lasting legacy as opposed to our favorite song of his. And with that I say “Inna lilahi wa inna ilayhi raj’iun” We are from God and it is to God that we return.

-Brother Dash