UNBREAKABLE …But Will He Learn His Lesson? (An Ode To Michael Jackson) by William Fredrick Cooper
(Written June 13th, 2005)
You Can't Believe it,
You Can't Conceive it;
And You Can't Touch Me
'Cause I'm Untouchable
(Written June 13th, 2005)
You Can't Believe it,
You Can't Conceive it;
And You Can't Touch Me
'Cause I'm Untouchable
And I Know You Hate it,
And you can't take it
You'll never break me
Cause I'm Unbreakable...
-Lyrics from UNBREAKABLE
From Michael Jackson's INVINCIBLE CD - 2001
Now that I can exhale, I will again blast my Michael Jackson selections with a certain peace. Yes, I held my breath as well, for when the charges dropped, I assumed he was a goner. While I realized the ramifications/repercussions if convicted of child molestation and additional counts of lewd misconduct and voiced this in an E-mail about a year ago, I prayed that they wouldn't take him away from me.
You see, as eccentric as we all know he is, the fact that I can separate talent from reality has me still loving this man. My memory drifts back to Zane's cruise, when Felicia Madlock and I did an impromptu rendition of the Jackson Five upon hearing ‘I Want You Back.’
Apparently, I'm not the only one that loves his talent.
I almost took another walk to Time Square to watch another lynching rope break. You remember the last time it occurred, almost ten years ago? White America was about to teach us a lesson like we were still enslaved, for allegedly killing two of their own. Thousands gathered and watched the JumboTron back in 1996 as we learned the fate of one Orenthal James Simpson, much like viewing a lynching back in the day.
Only that day, however, the noose broke. The Glove didn't fit ‘The Juice’ in that moment of time, so now I get to watch, without guilt, #32 in blue in those 1970’s Buffalo Bill highlights behind the Electric Company, juking and dodging defenders while not in a White Bronco being chased by police.
Still feeling the many hugs I shared that day when walking from Times Square to Grand Central, moments like that are spiritual with us. While not racist, I can't help but smirk at the many red faces I saw that day. It's as if all the moments where we were made to feel inferior, all the hoses, the attack dogs and rapes of our women, William Lynch philosophy, I-must-be-twice-as-good-to-get-the-same-job-as-you, using Omarosa and J.L. King as civil dissension breeding pawns... (Have you ever noticed when they need to make the American Public aware of things in life, they use black people? And what's even more idiotic is that we fall prey to the dumbness every time, like Charlie Brown does every time Lucy Van Pelt picks up that damn football.)And all those moments came home to roost in one moment.
Make that three. With the fear and frustration felt after 9/11 and the Michael Jackson verdict, I wonder how white people feel, as Cornel West put it on the day I was baptized at my church three years ago, to be ‘Niggerized’.
Makes you think, huh?
But alas, the polarization failed to cease today. As I listened to some post-verdict frustrations in my office, I truly wondered if they, as well as ‘Massa CNN and its fellow media brothers, actually do get it. Perhaps another towel is in order to wipe more egg of their faces.
I just hope Michael gets it too. In 1993, he took an expensive Strike One to the tune of 20 million dollars lost. This trial and public humiliation and what little decency he had left was Strike Two. The lesson, if failed again, will be worse. This is not to say he is guilty of anything. But he must make changes.
He has three boys. Be a father to them. Wanna help children, dude? Donate money to many of these mentorship programs, for we sure can use it. Have supervised visits at Neverland, if any at all. And get back into that studio and focus on that incredible gift of yours. Next time around, you might not be so lucky.
And you can't take it
You'll never break me
Cause I'm Unbreakable...
-Lyrics from UNBREAKABLE
From Michael Jackson's INVINCIBLE CD - 2001
Now that I can exhale, I will again blast my Michael Jackson selections with a certain peace. Yes, I held my breath as well, for when the charges dropped, I assumed he was a goner. While I realized the ramifications/repercussions if convicted of child molestation and additional counts of lewd misconduct and voiced this in an E-mail about a year ago, I prayed that they wouldn't take him away from me.
You see, as eccentric as we all know he is, the fact that I can separate talent from reality has me still loving this man. My memory drifts back to Zane's cruise, when Felicia Madlock and I did an impromptu rendition of the Jackson Five upon hearing ‘I Want You Back.’
Apparently, I'm not the only one that loves his talent.
I almost took another walk to Time Square to watch another lynching rope break. You remember the last time it occurred, almost ten years ago? White America was about to teach us a lesson like we were still enslaved, for allegedly killing two of their own. Thousands gathered and watched the JumboTron back in 1996 as we learned the fate of one Orenthal James Simpson, much like viewing a lynching back in the day.
Only that day, however, the noose broke. The Glove didn't fit ‘The Juice’ in that moment of time, so now I get to watch, without guilt, #32 in blue in those 1970’s Buffalo Bill highlights behind the Electric Company, juking and dodging defenders while not in a White Bronco being chased by police.
Still feeling the many hugs I shared that day when walking from Times Square to Grand Central, moments like that are spiritual with us. While not racist, I can't help but smirk at the many red faces I saw that day. It's as if all the moments where we were made to feel inferior, all the hoses, the attack dogs and rapes of our women, William Lynch philosophy, I-must-be-twice-as-good-to-get-the-same-job-as-you, using Omarosa and J.L. King as civil dissension breeding pawns... (Have you ever noticed when they need to make the American Public aware of things in life, they use black people? And what's even more idiotic is that we fall prey to the dumbness every time, like Charlie Brown does every time Lucy Van Pelt picks up that damn football.)And all those moments came home to roost in one moment.
Make that three. With the fear and frustration felt after 9/11 and the Michael Jackson verdict, I wonder how white people feel, as Cornel West put it on the day I was baptized at my church three years ago, to be ‘Niggerized’.
Makes you think, huh?
But alas, the polarization failed to cease today. As I listened to some post-verdict frustrations in my office, I truly wondered if they, as well as ‘Massa CNN and its fellow media brothers, actually do get it. Perhaps another towel is in order to wipe more egg of their faces.
I just hope Michael gets it too. In 1993, he took an expensive Strike One to the tune of 20 million dollars lost. This trial and public humiliation and what little decency he had left was Strike Two. The lesson, if failed again, will be worse. This is not to say he is guilty of anything. But he must make changes.
He has three boys. Be a father to them. Wanna help children, dude? Donate money to many of these mentorship programs, for we sure can use it. Have supervised visits at Neverland, if any at all. And get back into that studio and focus on that incredible gift of yours. Next time around, you might not be so lucky.
Please, Mike... learn the lesson, for many of us still love you.
William
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