Michael Jackson was a Black man born in America. He was a son, brother, uncle, cousin, nephew, father, recording artist, entertainer, businessman and humanitarian. Much negative press has been published about his life, and certainly he lived his whole life in the public’s eye. However, it is not my place to judge unless I've walked in his shoes. I love Michael’s spirit and I thank my higher power for having been alive at this time.
My first Jackson 5 record, a 45 r.p.m., was “Dancing Machine.” I was 11 or 12 years old in the 5th or 6th grade attending Piney Branch Middle School on Maple Ave., in Takoma Park, MD. My music teacher, Mrs. Davies encouraged a few of my classmates and myself to create a dance to the song. She also insisted that I choreograph the piece, which I did. Life was so limitless at that time. The Jackson 5 and their success said to me that I could be and do whatever I wanted to. I still remember bits and peaces of that dance some 36 years later.
Michael, you've gone much too soon, but the legacy of music you left us will live on and thrive for generations to come. My hope is that, at my own passing on to the ancestors, I have touched just one person’s life in a way that changes them for the better, and that that starts a ripple outward mostly in the Black community where our men need so much support to be and do the great things that people like you have shown us we can do.
I would like to take this time and space to say to Michael Jackson a fond farewell, and to the Jackson Family, including his children that The Black Men's Xchange-New York., (http://www.bmxny.org), send our heartfelt condolences at this time of loss in your life. We are affected greatly by his death as we were, are, and will continue to be, by his work. Rest in peace, Michael Joseph Jackson.
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