August 29, 2019
They killed him when he was alive. They killed him again when he died. They kill him one more time every year on his birthday. Now they’re killing him again by trying to kill his legacy.
They dig him up every year and kill him again. This year, on the 10th anniversary of his passing, they dug him up once again and lynched him.
It’s racist, you know.
Implicit or explicit, the prejudice is that black men with strength cannot be allowed to be.
They can’t be allowed to peddle cigarettes on the street (Eric Garner); they can’t be allowed to play in a park (Tamir Rice); they can’t be allowed to declare or explain their right to carry a firearm or reach for their wallet when asked to produce their license and registration (Philando Castile); they can’t be allowed to run or put their hands up during a confrontation with an officer (Michael Brown); they can’t be allowed to run away from a police officer who is being aggressive with them (Walter Scott); they can’t be allowed to be safely transported in the back of a police van (Freddie Gray)…
It’s dangerous– being while Black.
The mythology of the dangerous Black man brute or beast continues. White privilege persists.
And whatever you do, don’t be talented, a musical genius, attractive to women (especially white women,) or accumulate fame or wealth when you’re Black. It indicates you don’t know your place in society and you don’t honor or accept your deliberate exclusion from all industries except sports. Ad to that fame and wealth and you’re asking for a takedown.
The legacy of daring to be male and Black traces back through the DNA of a country’s enslavement of another race simply because of skin color. When Lincoln emancipated the American slaves in 1863, southern landowners lost their ticket to wealth and when the North won the Civil War, they lost their pride. The seething subterranean anger boiled under the surface for years until in 1915 when David Griffith released the film “Birth of a Nation.”
“Birth of a Nation” resurrected Southern pride, the antebellum South, White Supremacy and the Klu Klux Klan while depicting them as valiant savors of a South ravaged by Northern carpetbaggers and freed Blacks. Jim Crow and Black Codes kept segregation in place and were intended to vilify and marginalize Black citizens long after Lincoln freed them and beyond the 13th amendment.
No longer laws or legal, Black Codes exist still today. They just aren’t written. James Baldwin in his essay of 1985 “Here Be Dragons” wrote of Michael Jackson:
“The Michael Jackson cacophony is fascinating in that it is not about Jackson at all. I hope he has the good sense to know it and the good fortune to snatch his life out of the jaws of a carnivorous success. He will not swiftly be forgiven for having turned so many tables, for he damn sure grabbed the brass ring, and the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo has nothing on Michael.
All that noise is about America, as the dishonest custodian of black life and wealth; the blacks, especially males, in America; and the burning, buried American guilt; and sex and sexual roles and sexual panic; money, success and despair–to all of which may now be added the bitter need to find a head on which to place the crown of Miss America.
Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated–in the main, abominably–because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires.”
On the tenth anniversary of Jackson’s passing, we see the most heinous attempt yet to decontextualize, deconstruct and dismember a life and legacy. A couple of hangers-on from Michael’s life whom he befriended as boys have capitalized on the child molester claims from which he was exonerated in a court trial and have told their story to a witless filmmaker who gave them a platform and believed every word of their accusations. That filmmaker is now forced to defend his film which has been thoroughly discredited by astute Jackson fans and supporters beginning with an account of one of the protagonists that he was molested in a room in a train station at Neverland Ranch which wasn’t built until years after the claim. The filmmaker claimed that not the account, but the dates of the molestation were wrong– making the claimant too old to fit the profile of child sexual deviant they’ve attributed to Jackson. Conveniently, the other protagonist who claims that Jackson spoiled him for relationships with women with homosexual behavior failed to mention that he dated Jackson’s niece for years and during the time he was supposedly groomed and accosted by Jackson. Neither of the men claiming that Jackson abused them revealed publicly that they are suing the Jackson Estate for billions of dollars. That was conveniently left out of the film while the filmmaker cynically declares that the subjects will not profit from the film. One of the men, a choreographer, proposed to the Estate that he produce a posthumous tribute to Michael Jackson for Cirque du Soleil, but they chose someone else because they found him untrustworthy. He also pitched a tribute to the television program “So You Think You Can Dance” the day after Jackson died.
Michael Jackson was a freedom-fighter. A great deal of his work features themes, including prolific pastiche, that takes on racism and prejudice in covert forms. Fans who have defended Jackson over the years have had to endure not just heartbreak from the loss of Jackson himself, but insult after insult hurled at them accompanied by name calling and threats for protecting a pedophile. Jackson was acquitted of all charges. There was no credible evidence found even after being stalked by a racist district attorney in an affluent white city for 10 years. Jim Crow was enforced in Santa Barbara, California; a cursory look at the surnames of most arrest records will convince anyone of racial and ethnic bias.
Lynching remains a tradition as well for Oprah Winfrey, pal of Harvey Weinstein, aired a program after the film “Leaving Neverland,” interviewing the protagonists for an audience of people with histories of sexual abuse. Oprah’s career skyrocketed after she landed the first major interview with Jackson for her new TV show and she interviewed his grieving family at their home after he passed. Oprah, a successful Black woman betraying the legacy of a kindred Black celebrity, is particularly egregious because it is based on personal psychological wounding and a vendetta. Winfrey has since become silent about her part in supporting a seriously questionable documentary. It’s been widely suggested that Oprah’s pal Harvey Weinstein is responsible for more than a few of the salacious tabloid stories about Jackson because he pitched them to his tabloid press buddies in order to divert the focus off himself and the allegations of his own sexual misconduct. There are emails in evidence that outline his use of Jackson as a decoy whenever he needed cover.
What is most unfortunate in this mess is that the #MeToo Movement is being hijacked by the unconscionable antics of proven liars and opportunists. Nobody wants to see women and children made victims of someone’s uncontrolled deviant sexual appetites and the movement is long overdue. But convicting someone in the court of public opinion without due process will eventually weaken the position of people trying to find healing from a traumatic wound inflicted by another. The movement needs to be taken seriously and if it is misused or abused it will loose its impact and more suffering is all that will result from that adulterating of its power.
Someday the Hollywood swamp will be revealed and the creatures will surface. The specter of bullying of Jackson (and others) for fun and profit will be nauseating. But the question then becomes will society have evolved enough to clearly see, acknowledge and enact some kind of reparations for real human beings who have been hurt by the runaway collective psyche seeking to marginalize and make “other” unsuspecting humans just trying to live their lives while avoiding harm and suffering. That is the day we will finally become responsible grownups with the ability to exercise inclusion and compassion.
Until then Black men will continue to lose their lives and the harassment of minorities will persist. And, just as James Baldwin predicted, Michael Jackson will always be guilty of being while Black.
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As you read this essay, you will notice that I did not name names, refer to circumstances or explain in detail– for my readers are capable of doing that for themselves. As you read, names will come to mind, people will pop into your head, stirrings may arise in your consciousness, events may be remembered. and partial-conclusions formed. Before you begin, ask your higher self (enlightened consciousness) to engage with you here. When names, people, circumstances, mental pictures arise, they will be correct.
Every once an era or so, a human arrives on this planet who interacts with the world in a way that leaves a huge indelible mark. Some have that extraordinary wisdom or charisma or magnetism and power that they wield that impacts the world in a profound way. They make an impression, leave their mark, and thereafter things are never the same.
When a figure with fame and power becomes beloved, those whose ego is suffering the agony of worthlessness, meaninglessness, and not loving or being loved, will resent that person’s something that they will never have– to be embraced as worthy of admiration and love collectively. The mere presence of such a person is a constant reminder of the shortcomings of self. Each reminder a prick of pain within that dark state of suffering and agony.
There is someone on this planet who learned how to amass wealth by peddling shadow, by creating a famous and powerful mirror for collective shadow and then selling the stuff of that shadow back to those who gratefully bought it in order to distract from and avoid their own. This person caught on to how creating a target to project collective shadow onto was appreciated and brought relief from ever having to face your own unbearable shortcomings. There is someone too, who does not serve the world but serves only self and who employs shadow in all endeavors. That selfishness is being demonstrated to the world very effectively. What do you suppose is the purpose of those demonstrators and their demonstrations? Imagine what the world might have been like had they chosen to feature human brilliance instead of shadow.
And it is to become so sick of the ugliness that one commits to working toward turning things around. In what one does individually, what one does in cooperation with others and the collective that is humanity because if forms humanity. It is to become so saturated with the shadow as to long with every ounce of one’s being for the brilliance, the bright shadow of humanity to come out of hiding and express itself on this planet.
wrap your head around the idea that Michael Jackson would have been 60 years old today. What would he have looked like? Would the comeback have relieved him of some worry and stress? Would finding out how faithful the fans were and still are, have warmed his heart? Made him feel welcome in the world again? “This Is It” seemed destined for greatness. Would that have made a difference in his life? Would he have cheered up and come out of his protective shell?
Imagine: you’re the kid of a giant mega-star who was the world’s most polarizing figure– beloved by millions and vilified by a similar faction. You know your father’s heart because you grew up with him and absorbed his teachings of compassion and care. You still sting with the loss of your closest human companion who was father, mother, teacher, friend, life navigation guide…
The patriarch of the Jackson family has passed on at the age of 89 with Katherine and family at his side. Certainly a controversial figure, he leaves behind as his primary legacy, the Jackson 5, whose music punctuated a lot of our lives. He was their father, their manager, the “bad cop” head of the family to Katherine Jackson’s good cop. He shaped their lives and their music and made them into stars, something he aimed for himself. The early reports are that he died of Pancreatic Cancer. Pancreatic Cancer is an extremely painful way to go. It could not have been an easy path to the Promised Land.
Time is elastic. It sometimes acts like binoculars trained on reality while looking through the lenses from the wrong end. We know nine years have passed since Michael Jackson left this world; we’re amazed it’s been that long. For some, it seems like forever. In another reality, it feels like yesterday. Time is fluid… like water.
lake who never suffered any consequences and actually became well known after his part in it. Time to show Janet some respect– how about next year’s Superbowl instead of the tabloid criticism of her weight (post pregnancy) and her very public divorce? Now people are reporting that La Toya is a virgin. And Joe Jackson is supposedly on his deathbed.*Jermaine has refuted that claim and tried to right the record but the Jackson family is rarely taken seriously or taken at their word.
Mr. Rogers and Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood is revered and Barack Obama can have children following and clinging to him like the pied piper, but neither of them are vilified in the media for their “unusual relationships with children.” Children loved Michael. Even now they are unable to hold their bodies still when his music begins to play. Even babies smile at the vibe in his iconic music and voice. And many adults credit Michael Jackson with saving their lives because life at home or school was so painful, they contemplated suicide. His lyrics told them he believed. So they believed. And he was the symbolic icon for that belief. A believed, beloved icon.
yet to be a best-selling author who takes on his story. Certainly it’s not Ta-Nehisi Coates because his recent article: 
The art, almost as if possessing a life of its own, expresses and the artist is dragged along by it. It is a form of possession. The art, in Michael’s case was a spigot that was always open. David Nordahl once told me: “You have to remember that Michael heard and saw all of his work in his mind before it was created. He only tried to duplicate in reality what he saw or heard in his own imagination. He would try to come as close as he could to the real creation that was coming through him. It always came up short of his ideal of perfection.” That kind of music cannot be duplicated exactly in this realm; it’s otherworldly. Mozart too, heard the “music of the spheres” which is what Michael was referring to when he said that his music lived in another realm and he just plucked it from where it was “created in space.” He identified the origin many times citing God as the First Creator.
It’s far beyond the little ego and the machinations and acquisitions of the ego for the sake of itself that most humans experience. It is the ego sublimated by the quest itself and the knowing of something far beyond the skin-encapsulated finite and small self”s ego. It is a touching of the Self (capital S) and once touched, sets off a longing for integrating the Self which eclipses the little human ego. Nothing less will do. It becomes its own haunting. It is sometimes characterized as “The Hound of Heaven” or the inner voice that will not be silenced or the soul’s longing for union with the Creator. The mystics, gurus and adepts have spoken of it often.
June 25 comes round again, making it 8 years now since Michael Jackson died. A lot has happened since that fateful day Michael Jackson took his last breath on this planet. Some feel like it’s eons ago and some still mourn like it was yesterday. Some old fans have relegated him to memory and have moved on in and with their lives, new fans have come on board, countless old fans have given up on trying to teach new fans what Michael Jackson stood for, some new fans haven’t looked into the history of his becoming and ending or are ignorant of African American history, some fans have fallen out of favor with others and some still hold grudges against others for what they believe and whom they support or feel loyal too. A great deal of this is conduct unbecoming. Unbecoming of someone who claims to be a Jackson fan or supporter.
Each of us is born into this world with that same Original Vision. It is the imagery of perfection, of brotherhood, of peace, of Heaven on Earth. Everyone is born with it but many forget it or don’t remember, or fail to re-remember, the “picture” they were born with. Everyone comes in with potential and from my wide reacing and esoteric religious studies, I understand that our souls are imprinted with a mission—the task we came here to do. It’s the thing that our souls long for, the impulse to make the world a better place by contributing to its advancement, and humanity’s advancement inbred in us. There is a unique contribution that we, alone, came to make. Yes, we come into this world with a mission melded into the architecture of our soul and it is our job to find out what that mission is and to accomplish it in this lifetime. This mission, once grasped and acted upon, expands the soul and the knowledge and in an instant, glimpses the greater plan for humanity. Once glimpsed, this plan can never be ignored. It haunts similar to a near-death experience. When one knows, one can never “unknow.” The understanding comes of what it means to accrue good karma, and to advance the enlightenment of ourselves and humanity. “Enlightenment” once glimpsed is never forgotten nor abandoned.
Enlightenment is one of those things, like the shard of the soul that holds the key to life mission, to Self, and “God’s work” here (by whatever name you call that god or whatever way you worship.) There is a way to establish a communication portal to that internal knowledge. For example, mediation is one way; Shamanism is another.)
The ego also has a dark side—the “shadow,” as it’s called. It is the part of self that forgets others in favor of self and gaining for self, and uses less-than-ethical means to get its needs met.
How do we know he knew all this? The evidence is clear in all his work and words. One particularly clear time, he spoke of it being “out there” in the ethers and referred to himself as plucking it from where it already existed; in another clear moment, he referenced it with Kenny Ortega who asked him if he could rest a bit while working so hard in the studio to capture the music and lyrics for his work. “No, he answered, “God will give it to Prince!” It was clear that Michael believed that his work didn’t come from him but came thorough him. David Nordahl confirmed this to me in a conversation saying “You have to understand his music came from some other realm; he only took a kind of ‘dictation’ and he worked hard to approximate it as closely as he could to what he heard in his mind.” All of Michael’s music came from that same place. All of it came in a “download” to him from somewhere he recognized as a soul space or soul source. He acted quickly as he could so as to not to let the download slip away or so as not to “contaminate” it or confuse it with stuff in this realm.
e incorporated all sorts of sounds in his compositions.
To prepare for this new unveiling, we must necessarily examine Self for the characteristics of soul that a portal and emergence in to a new space or new work demands from a spiritual warrior—integrity, honesty, compassion, forgiveness, loyalty, steadfast humanity, maturity, generosity, magnanimity (not withholding from others or claiming territory—unearned or unentitled to you,) reverence, endurance, and Esprit de Corps. This state of mind and being must tolerate differences, eschew any kind of violence or bullying, and embrace diversity.
This is how I grieve– I spill the grief out with my fingers, onto paper or into key strokes. After I wrote this piece, I realized it’s not finished. Memories of things we spoke about and happenings we pondered are triggered by speaking to friends and acquaintances about this sudden loss of a friend. I will add things as they occur to me. You are invited to share your memories of Catherine in the comment section. I’ll save them for us. You’ll also find a link to a magazine by MJ Brookins dedicated to the memory of Catherine Gross here: 
me one day and asked if we might chat. She told me that Liz Taylor had sent her to me. What? Liz Taylor knew of my work? That Liz Taylor? Catherine assured me she did and Liz had pointed her in my direction because Catherine was grieving so deeply and Liz found my work and my words about Michael consoling. Liz send Catherine to my website. They had become friends when Cat wrote to her about Michael and talked about how devastated she was and they commiserated and bonded over their loss. I found out Catherine was planning a radio show for Michael Jackson and his fans to help them cope with his loss and wanted to know if I would consider being a guest.
As fate would have it, I met Catherine in person in Los Angeles near Hollywood at Gardner Elementary School in the Michael Jackson auditorium. I began talking to Thomas Mesereau, Jackson’s defense attorney, whom I met while there and he indicated an open chair at his table and invited me to join. I had written to him about the “Words and Violence” program I had founded that examined bullying in all its incarnations and was dedicated to Michael and Lady Diana Spencer. I handed him some cards I had made about the program and we were discussing how “Words and Violence” was hosted by Voices Education Project and was the first educational program posthumously featuring Michael and suddenly I heard a familiar voice across the table asking if she might have one too. I knew that voice! It was Catherine Gross! We hugged and laughed and explained to Tom that we knew each other from our work and from radio but we had to go all the way across the country to L.A. to meet in person! We all chucked at that.
Catherine championed a girl’s academy school in Gary Indiana near Michael Jackson’s childhood home with Cadeflaw and M.J Brookins, advocates for truth and law in legacies and she solicited donations for her “girls.” Catherine loved the arts and she especially loved Michael Jackson fan art. Her most recent project in Gary was to set up an art exhibition of Michael Jackson art by fans. Again, she was in her element– education and the arts.
Here are some more comments from the survey with my answers: