tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35260220.post333172264346480932..comments2024-03-02T22:56:20.524+01:00Comments on Chile Liberal: Leave Him AloneChile Liberalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17134953084557362549noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35260220.post-47703626758860936382009-07-02T22:44:44.908+02:002009-07-02T22:44:44.908+02:00Of course like many American Blacks Michael Jackso...Of course like many American Blacks Michael Jackson had non-African ancestry as well. One of his ancestors was a White man, another an American Indian. Nonetheless, according to America’s “one-drop rule” Jackson and his family would definitely be considered Black. Some Black activists lamented his various “Whitening” endeavours, seeing them as a sign of racial self-hatred. Jackson, though, never claimed to speak for the African-American community. Indeed, his music was loved by people of all colours throughout the world, so he might have feared losing or alienating some of his fans by embracing a particular ethnic identity. In his song “Black or White,” he appears to disavow any racial allegiance – although many observers noted that for a man who proclaimed it didn’t matter whether you were Black or White he seemed to do everything in his power to be White himself.<br /><br /> <br /><br />An autopsy done on Jackson’s remains was inconclusive. As of now (June 28) the cause of his demise has yet to be determined. In death, as in life, the man remains an enigma. And perhaps that is how he would have wanted it to be.<br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br />* Here I do not mean to imply that the sexual abuse of children does not exist or that it is not a serious crime. However, starting in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s there was a trend of attributing seemingly unusual behaviour in children to sexual abuse and fingering adults with whom they had come in contact with molesting them.Chile Liberalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17134953084557362549noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35260220.post-2774584934904812082009-07-02T22:44:09.741+02:002009-07-02T22:44:09.741+02:00Hi Emilia, thanks for the article. So that everyon...Hi Emilia, thanks for the article. So that everyone can read it, I post it here, some may want to check out in the original post, <a href="http://www.cynicsunlimited.com/2009/06/28/who-was-he-%E2%80%93-the-question-of-michael-jackson/" rel="nofollow">Who Was He – The Question of Michael Jackson</a><br /><br /><b>Who Was He – The Question of Michael Jackson</b><br /><br /> <br />In the early evening of June 25, a small headline in the news read that former Charlie’s Angels actress and hairstyle icon Farrah Fawcett had died. Her death was not particularly surprising, as she was after all 62 and had been struggling with cancer for some time. An hour later when I went to the computer, a much bigger headline stated, “Is the King of Pop dead?” with a huge picture of Michael Jackson in the background. The question was answered shortly afterwards: Jackson had indeed passed away in unknown circumstances, and fans were already gathering outside the hospital to which he had been taken.<br /><br /> <br /><br />While Michael Jackson was a celebrity who received an enormous amount of media attention, it has been said that nobody truly knew him. Indeed, questions about the man linger on. For example, did he or did he not sexually molest the young boys with whom he kept company? He was accused of doing so on two separate occasions, but in the first case he reached an out-of-court settlement with the purported victim’s family and in the second he was acquitted. The jury’s decision was somewhat equivocal: though they stated that they could not exclude the possibility that he might have sexually abused children in the past, in this particular instance he did not. I strongly suspect that the accusations against Michael Jackson were part of the wave of child sexual abuse hysteria that swept through the United States and that led to a large number of individuals (mainly day care workers) being charged on dubious grounds.* But many people will still wonder.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Even before that Jackson’s sexual identity was always the subject of much speculation. It was sometimes hard to tell by his appearance whether he was a woman or a man. A rumour in the 1980s had it that he was intending to undergo a sex change operation because he could no longer silence the “woman in me,” but either the rumour was untrue or Michael Jackson changed plans because nothing became of it. Similarly his sexual orientation was unclear in the minds of many. In his youth he was said to have romantic relationships with actress Brooke Shields and his co-star in the Thriller video Ola Ray. A number of observers suggested that these publicized romances were just for show and that these women served as a so-called “cover” for his true sexual orientation. No media report, though, was ever able to pinpoint any relationship he may have had with another man. He did marry women twice and father two children (and adopt one), but comments about his actual sexual proclivities continued.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Michael Jackson’s greatest ambiguity lay in his racial identity. To quote one of his most popular songs, was he black or white? Pictures of him as a child and young man show him with clearcut African features: a large Afro hairdo and a typical “Black” nose. By the time Thriller rolled around, however, he had obviously undergone a nose job, and his hair was curly rather than kinky. At the time of his death his hair was completely straight. But the biggest question had to do with his skin colour, which became progressively lighter over the years. Jackson himself claimed that the lightening was the result of a medical condition that made his skin lose colour. Such conditions do exist (the mother of an African-American friend of mine had one), but given Michael’s apparent attempts to “Caucasianize” himself (the nose operation, the hair straightening), doubts on the veracity of his explanation will persist. <br /><br />(continues)Chile Liberalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17134953084557362549noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35260220.post-8378727929263892262009-06-30T06:18:34.019+02:002009-06-30T06:18:34.019+02:00Hi, it's Emilia again. I'm just going to ...Hi, it's Emilia again. I'm just going to post an article I wrote about Michael Jackson. I'll have to put it in a separate commentary because it's too long for just one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35260220.post-70858600658286775472009-06-27T16:18:23.189+02:002009-06-27T16:18:23.189+02:00¡Qué sentida columna!
Gracias por compartirla.¡Qué sentida columna!<br />Gracias por compartirla.Flohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16491488283374909231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35260220.post-59351654670256650792009-06-27T13:58:07.022+02:002009-06-27T13:58:07.022+02:00Es un grande. No le digamos adiós, digámosle hasta...Es un grande. No le digamos adiós, digámosle hasta luego. Se ha ido, sí, pero su música queda ahí, como la de Lennon o la de Hendrix.<br /><br />Te recomiendo mi artículo sobre él también.<br /><br />Un saludoMiguel A. Pazos Fernándezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15407863911834179948noreply@blogger.com