RIP Michael

How do you mourn for someone as complicated as Michael Jackson? The amount of ways in which he’s related to the world is huge. Beautiful dancer, child star, messed-up man, criminal, and so on. I’m hearing people say that he’s just a person, and that people die all the time, which is true, but he’s more than that. Before his long and slow fall, Michael Jackson was a beautiful man. And here’s the thing: I think the reason people are either so gossipy or apathetic about his death is precisely because of his long slow decline. Picture someone who was disgraced instantly, like OJ (I know he’s another black man, but that’s not the point). He’s almost canonized, despite how much people might loath what he got away with. Michael Jackson just faded.

And as a result, I would argue, the world doesn’t know what it’s lost. I’m mourning not for the Michael Jackson who was a screwed-up kid, not for the Michael Jackson who messed with his body so deeply, not for the Michael Jackson who came to represent the depravity of a dirty old man, but for the amazing, sexy, and beautiful man who danced with zombies and pioneered the moonwalk in front of a screaming crowd. After all he’s done and been through, and if he couldn’t in life, he deserves, in death, to finally rest in peace.