Today I ran across a Beautiful declaration of reflection and love derived from the death of the King of Pop.
It was written by Drew Drew Dixon Williams Founder of SecondLadies.com, and went a lil something like this;
The drive that transported Michael Jackson from a four-room house crowded with eleven family members in Gary, Indiana and the drive that transported Michelle Obama from her modest family-home on Chicago’s South Side, are two sides of the same proverbial coin. And as for Barack Obama, his journey across continents from his humble beginnings in Hawaii to the most powerful office on the planet, was akin to political moonwalking.
Read the rest after the jump…
From my vantage point, they are all examples of what can happen when extraordinary natural ability is placed under enormous pressure and of course, when the stars align. They are the carbon that becomes a diamond in the mine. But while it is clear that in the literal sense of POTUS and FLOTUS, there could be no Michelle without Barack, I would argue, that similarly, there could be no Barack without Michael Jackson. As has been said many times in the barrage of media coverage following his death, MJ broke down barriers. He was the first black artist whose videos got played on MTV. His records defied the long-standing precedent of segregated airwaves to get airplay on rock and pop radio stations in the eighties. Those milestones were significant to be sure, but in my opinion, the biggest barriers that he broke down were psychological. His gift was so great that he transcended race, not just in terms of format, but in terms of feeling. All across the globe men, women and children let Michael Jackson get under their skin, even as his own skin morphed towards an ideal image of beauty that he himself was in the process of obliterating.
Michael Jackson’s influence on global pop culture was so profound that he triggered a ripple effect of seismic proportions. He created the paradigm of a black person whose exceptional achievements could grant them, quite literally, carte blanche. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Barack Obama inhabit this MJ paradigm in his wake. Now, with the benefit (and tragedy) of hindsight, the truly enormous extent of his impact is beginning to come to light.
Michael Jackson fundamentally weakened the psychological constructs and divisions that are necessary for racism to persist, so I cannot let this moment pass without remarking upon it. This is partly because I am the African-American daughter of two politicians, a history major from Stanford and a student of popular culture. I suppose those are the nerdy reasons why I care about Michael Jackson, but there is another reason why I feel compelled to speak out. It is because of “Wanna Be Starting Something” and “Lady In My Life”. It is because of “Never Can Say Goodbye” and “Got To Be There”. It is because of “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”, “Off The Wall”, “Rock WIth You”, “Man In The Mirror”, “Remember The Time”, “Butterflies”, “You Are Not Alone, “We Are The World,” You Can’t Win” from The Wiz, “I Wanna Be Where You Are”, “Ben”, “Rockin Robin” and “Can You Feel It”…
Second Ladies is a Website dedicated to the efforts and movement of Michelle Obama. By following Michelle Obama’s example and by supporting her from everything to offering her advice in her complex role as First Lady and Mom-In-Chief, or providing Volunteer Information to support her efforts. Second ladies provides a means for our community to succeed in realizing her vision as First Lady, as well as helping us shape our own lives by providing a support network.
Check them out.
-Stay FLY!
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