MJ tribute

[Howlin Mad Missy]

Yeah, the likes of Sharpton & Jackson have sold out a lot of what they originally stood for & now just try to say what they think people want to hear & keeps their faces visible.

This thing of trying to put Michael Jackson in some kind of iconic political frame really pisses me off. Ignoring is private life completely, you can say he was a great musician & possibly the biggest superstar of all time. What he is not is some great political leader in the manner of Martin, Malcolm or Obama. He had a huge musical influence, but in no way was he responsible for a black man being elected into the white house.

Sorry fellas but how many black faces were really on MTV before him?

Why do people think The Cosby Show was important socially.

It started to turn black in to mainstream. White kids liked em equally.

Even from across the pond I could see that.

White kids also loved Jimi Hendrix it doesn't mean he was responsible for reducing racism. MJ was no more responsible than the scores of sports stars in the US. The Cosby Show whilst important, also had some negative impacts on the African-American community, particularly in establishing a 'good black folk' attitude amongst some. It was positive in not overly mentioning race such as The Jeffersons did, however it did not play the socially cohesive role many give it now.

'Black' becoming mainstream is a result of a number of factors of which music & MJ are only a part, & do not deserve the credit for Obama getting into the White House, because that was his own doing. Jackson deserves no more credit for that than Michael Jordan or Walter Payton

Also on MTV, whilst it had a colour barrier prior to MJ's 2nd album that was largely its own construction & heavily criticized by many before that. Yes, he along with Tina Turner, Whitney Houston & Prince did break that down, however MTV was not the huge commercially successful channel it is now, & reached far fewer homes in those days.

Yes much more terrible to show a happy, wealthy successful black family than the drug dealers, whores, thieves we know them to be

That in itself was a stereotype - it's ok for blacks to successful in sports. It's still seen as a way out of poverty rather than education or going to law school. It was ok for blacks to sing and dance. Essentially anything to do with entertainment.

I'm not over or underplaying his status. I'm just saying to suggest his influence was only 80's pop doesn't cover it. Things like this are more complex.

Ripples on the pond.