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i also think that the parents that let their children alone with MJ for these sleepovers should be held accountable too and it was a travesty that they were financially rewarded for not protecting their children.
I felt the same way. That's like putting your toddler in the middle of the street to play and then getting paid when someone run's him over.
"Michael Jackson is seen as a hero to many because he singlehandedly broke down massive social barriers that had stood for time immemorial, and opened the door for an entire segment of this society to succeed. There were very few black people on TV before Michael. There weren't all that many blacks songs in the mainstream media before Michael. Blacks artists didn't experience the astronomical monetary and sales success they do now until Michael showed up. As far as civil rights go, few individuals this side of Malcolm and Martin did more than he did."
I'm holding on to the second part. Perhaps there was an isolated exception or two, but the fact of the matter is that Michael opened the door for black musical culture to become a central, more integral part of popular culture, the way that it is today. Billie Jean was the first video by an African-American artist to be played in a heavy rotation on MTV or any other channel on cable TV. Without that, 90% of black artists out there today are basically under the radar and nothing more.
He achieved a level of stardom that I'm quite sure The Platters never reached prior to him and that no artist since has either. He was, quite frankly, very much more successful than them. For me, that's notable enough.
He did black people a great disservice.
And his fans, black or white, seem to be suffering from the same pathology of arrested development that MJ suffered.
To me, watching golf is as much boring and a waste of time as watching paint dry - but it's pure entertainment to me compared to watching MJ.
Reading about TW's success, however, thrills me to no end.
Folks like TW just don't do disservice to me.
I'm probably just ignorant.
Or I am because I still don't get what you're saying. Oh well. Can't win them all.
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