Michael Jackson - Billie Jean - Death of an Icon
I tried to keep away from venturing out in sharing my take about this shocking demise (as I'll be obviously riding on the current popularity of the worldwide grief now experienced over the death of an icon), but I could not help but share a thing or two about Michael Jackson. I heard the news about his death in an almost empty bus among 3 black people up there in the Bronx. Michael was very much as black as those 3 with me that time, though I figure he must have been forgiven by most black people for transforming himself into what others have described as a "white woman," an act he must have committed in order to pursue his calling as an artist, as part of coming up with a whole new package for a finicky market, as a way to depart strongly from the past (and come in terms with the present, as some will say). I suddenly remarked before the group, in my faltering accent, my observation that most media have been harsh towards Michael during the last few years of his life, as...