Opinion: Before you cancel Michael Jackson, we should listen to what he was telling us in plain sight. And we need to ask ourselves why we might value beautiful fictions more than ugly truths.
Michael Jackson waves to supporters as he arrives for his child molestation trial at the Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria, Calif., on March 2, 2005.
Jackson’s obsession with children, childhood and childish pursuits was one of the dominant elements of his stardom and his artistic work in a way that was obvious even while he was still alive, even if those interests have acquired a very different sheen in the aftermath of the 1994 civil settlement he reached with the family of Jordan Chandler, whom he allegedly abused, and Jackson’s 2004 child molestation trial, at which he was acquitted.
The essence of Jackson’s music wasn’t in any one song or set of songs but in that synthesis between the saccharine and the caustic. His ability to release “Scream” and “Childhood” as the A and B sides of a 1995 single, to toggle between declaring that “/the whole system sucks” and singing “Have you seen my childhood?” without inducing national whiplash was his talent.
Jackson’s seduction of the public was an insurance policy, and judging by how tenaciously some of his supporters defend him in death, and even when faced with evidence like “Leaving Neverland,” it was an effective one. And that’s why it’s important to listen to Jackson’s music one more time, even if it’s a repulsive experience rather than a joyful one.
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