Should we whitewash an artist’s black heart so we can party at his funeral?
Michael Jackson’s funeral brings up an age-old question: How do you reconcile an artist’s repugnant private life with his stellar public achievement?
His mark on music is undeniable, but so is his impact on child welfare. Seems like a lot of us would rather deny the man than his music. That’s why you see so much whitewashing in the news–downplaying or omitting his Warp 5 Freak Factor.
The canonization of the King of Pop requires a stop at Rewrite. The fact that he was brought up on charges of child molestation twice is simply an inconvenience we wave away by reminding ourselves he was never convicted.
You know, like O.J.
It seems like we can only mourn Michael Jackson if we drink the “Nothing was ever proved in a court of law” Kool-Aid. The cognitive dissonance lights up our discomfort like heat lightning, so we don’t acknowledge the $20 million dollar Go Away fee he paid to some accusers, the documentary showing him holding hands with a boy who wasn’t his own, or how perfectly he fit a pedophile’s profile (surround yourself with children, target broken families, gain the trust of a parent, create opportunities to be alone with a child).
The only way we can turn Michael Jackson into a God is to deny he was ever a priest.
No one wants to accept the fact that the guy who announced a new age in music also announced that he could no longer get an erection without a child in the room. No one wants to accept the fact that a beloved black man turned into a sickening white woman. No one wants to accept the fact that the All-American boy turned into Heath Ledger’s The Joker.
Mourning Michael Jackson requires harder work than remembering his Thriller Album. If you really want to “get” how complicated it is, ask yourself two questions:
- How much would you pay to have dinner with him?
- How much would you pay to keep him away from your children?
Michael Jackson thrilled us in public and nauseated us in private. Why can’t we mourn while holding these two contradictory thoughts? Because then we wouldn’t be able to party. You can’t Wanna Be Startin’ Something with a child molester. You’d have to Beat it. We deny so we can celebrate.
Lots of stars have had questionable personal lives (if not criminal ones) that threaten to overshadow their accomplishments. From Richard Wagner (the brilliant opera composer who hated Jews–he would typically speak of the “harmful influence of Jewry on the morality of the nation”) to Michael Joseph Jackson.
We would never dream of marrying without the wedding March, “Here comes the bride” just because the melody was taken from Richard Wagner’s opera (“Bridal Chorus” of Lohengrin). Or avoid snapping our fingers whenever Rock With You blares from the radio. That’s as it should be.
But should we whitewash an artist’s black heart so we can party at his funeral?