Friday, July 10, 2009
Life Ain't Been No Crystal Stairs
This week we honored the memory of our beloved Michael Jackson.
I found it amazing to see the number of people who stood on street corners in Time Square and other cities and countries looking at big screen TVs showing his nationally televised memorial.
I never met Michael - yet, I felt a significant loss when I read of his passing. I feel like I grew up with him and Tito, Marlon, Jermaine and Jackie. I can see him now singing "1,2,3 as easy as A,B, C" (hahaha - ohhh, those are some really good memories). Yes, I grew up with him so it feels like I've lost a member of my family.
As I looked at the outpouring of love and respect, it made me wonder what it must have felt like to be Michael Jackson. to not be able to do or enjoy the simple pleasure that you and I perform daily. There is no way he could just walk into a mall and go shopping, surf on his beach of choice or stroll in a park to smell new blossoms - not without being photographed or practically run over by well meaning fans. Even when he found solace in his own home, people wouldn't leave him alone. I remember Marlon talking about Michael going into the store in disguise and I can visualize that. Actually, I can see a lot of famous people like Prince Charles and our First Families doing the very same thing. How else can they get out and do what we do so naturally on a daily basis? For him, inspite of his fame, I'm certain he would say "life ain't been no crystal stairs".
So many want to criticize Michael saying he changed his skin color to be "white". Well, I can remember that growing up in the South, light-skinned African-Americans were afforded "better" opportunities than "dark complexioned" African-Americans. It's sad, but true. I know of several classmates who used Artra to lighten their skin because of this misguided fact of living in the South. I doubt if anybody ever did a study on this but I bet if they did, they will find that there was a lot of truth to those practices back in the 50's and 60's. So for those of you who want to put Michael down for lightening his skin, try to understand the situation from whence he came and remember that even for Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 - life was hard.
As I watch the outpouring of love for Michael from various countries, races, nationalities around the world, it greatly saddened me to fire up my laptop and read about children allegedly being denied access to a club's swimming pool because of their "complexion". If the news is to be believed (and I'll be the first to say don't believe everything the media says or write), the owner was quoted as saying "so many kids would change the complexion of the pool". WTF does that mean?
When I was growing up in South Carolina, I remember the OFFICIALS in Calhoun County draining the public swimming pool that was located near The Hut (a local recreation area) because several African-American males defiantly dove into the public swimming pool. The whites got out of the pool and left simply because these guys wanted to swim on a hot summer day. For some reason, some of the whites in Calhoun County did thought the pool was just for them, just like the bowling alleys, even though AA's paid taxes, too.......so they drained the pool .....and to the best of my knowledge, it remains drained to this day (if it still exists). That was back in the late 1960's or 1970's (getting old, can't remember -lol). And here we are, 2009, more than 30-40 year's later, and the same type behavior is happening. No - life ain't been no crystal stairs.
Well, times have changed. Those hippies and baby boomers who were not allowed to swim in public pools and those hippies and aby-boomers mistreated because of the color of their skin are lawyers now!!! Their children, nieces and nephews are lawyers, now!!! THEY GREW UP!!.... and with a long memory! The world is changing and those people who insist on being judgmental and living in the clouds of racism should be aware that injustice and bigotry is not so easily tolerated any more. IT IS, IN FACT, UNACCEPTABLE!
Like Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King and so many more smiling upon us, I pray for the day when we learn that no race, nationality or ethnicity is superior to another. We are all "PEOPLE", "God's People" with one purpose.....God's Purpose.
Until next time
Keep the splinters out!
I found it amazing to see the number of people who stood on street corners in Time Square and other cities and countries looking at big screen TVs showing his nationally televised memorial.
I never met Michael - yet, I felt a significant loss when I read of his passing. I feel like I grew up with him and Tito, Marlon, Jermaine and Jackie. I can see him now singing "1,2,3 as easy as A,B, C" (hahaha - ohhh, those are some really good memories). Yes, I grew up with him so it feels like I've lost a member of my family.
As I looked at the outpouring of love and respect, it made me wonder what it must have felt like to be Michael Jackson. to not be able to do or enjoy the simple pleasure that you and I perform daily. There is no way he could just walk into a mall and go shopping, surf on his beach of choice or stroll in a park to smell new blossoms - not without being photographed or practically run over by well meaning fans. Even when he found solace in his own home, people wouldn't leave him alone. I remember Marlon talking about Michael going into the store in disguise and I can visualize that. Actually, I can see a lot of famous people like Prince Charles and our First Families doing the very same thing. How else can they get out and do what we do so naturally on a daily basis? For him, inspite of his fame, I'm certain he would say "life ain't been no crystal stairs".
So many want to criticize Michael saying he changed his skin color to be "white". Well, I can remember that growing up in the South, light-skinned African-Americans were afforded "better" opportunities than "dark complexioned" African-Americans. It's sad, but true. I know of several classmates who used Artra to lighten their skin because of this misguided fact of living in the South. I doubt if anybody ever did a study on this but I bet if they did, they will find that there was a lot of truth to those practices back in the 50's and 60's. So for those of you who want to put Michael down for lightening his skin, try to understand the situation from whence he came and remember that even for Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 - life was hard.
As I watch the outpouring of love for Michael from various countries, races, nationalities around the world, it greatly saddened me to fire up my laptop and read about children allegedly being denied access to a club's swimming pool because of their "complexion". If the news is to be believed (and I'll be the first to say don't believe everything the media says or write), the owner was quoted as saying "so many kids would change the complexion of the pool". WTF does that mean?
When I was growing up in South Carolina, I remember the OFFICIALS in Calhoun County draining the public swimming pool that was located near The Hut (a local recreation area) because several African-American males defiantly dove into the public swimming pool. The whites got out of the pool and left simply because these guys wanted to swim on a hot summer day. For some reason, some of the whites in Calhoun County did thought the pool was just for them, just like the bowling alleys, even though AA's paid taxes, too.......so they drained the pool .....and to the best of my knowledge, it remains drained to this day (if it still exists). That was back in the late 1960's or 1970's (getting old, can't remember -lol). And here we are, 2009, more than 30-40 year's later, and the same type behavior is happening. No - life ain't been no crystal stairs.
Well, times have changed. Those hippies and baby boomers who were not allowed to swim in public pools and those hippies and aby-boomers mistreated because of the color of their skin are lawyers now!!! Their children, nieces and nephews are lawyers, now!!! THEY GREW UP!!.... and with a long memory! The world is changing and those people who insist on being judgmental and living in the clouds of racism should be aware that injustice and bigotry is not so easily tolerated any more. IT IS, IN FACT, UNACCEPTABLE!
Like Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King and so many more smiling upon us, I pray for the day when we learn that no race, nationality or ethnicity is superior to another. We are all "PEOPLE", "God's People" with one purpose.....God's Purpose.
Until next time
Keep the splinters out!
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