The Untouchable Michael Jackson

I once thought of giving Michael Jackson a hug, but celebrity had put him outside of my reach. I believe that’s what killed him in the end.

By: Rebecca Walker | Posted: July 7, 2009 at 7:39 AM

Dave Hogan/Getty Images

I met Michael Jackson in 1984. We were both guests of Quincy Jones and Steven Spielberg at Amblin, Spielberg's production company on the Universal film lot. Whoopi Goldberg was preparing to play Celie, the protagonist in the film version of The Color Purple, a book written by my mother, and was giving a private stand-up performance at Spielberg’s request.

Michael and I sat in the front row. He was wearing his by-then trademark red bandleader jacket with epaulets and gold rope loops at the shoulder, trim black slacks, white socks, black shoes, and yes, a glove. Whoopi was hilarious, and at one point singled me out for audience participation. She asked a few questions and pulled me onstage. I gamely played along, enjoying the attention.

Why Michael approached me in a room full of superstars after the show I will never know. Perhaps because I was the youngest in the room, and at 14 didn’t have a big name, a big career or a powerful company. I was a kid, easy, with few expectations. I was not old enough to demand, even silently, that he live up to anything. Perhaps he felt that with me he could be, in a sense, free.

I remember his body language. He moved slowly, like a very cool cat, hesitant, but smooth. And then, in the softest of voices, he asked how I was able to do the impromptu bit of comical business. He could never do something like that on the spot, he said. He’d be too nervous. I remember laughing and chiding him. You’d be great, Michael! I said. He shook his head and out crept a smile so open and vulnerable that I wanted to hug him, and probably would have, if he weren’t Michael Jackson.

But he was, and I had no way to reach across the boundary of celebrity that put us on opposite sides of an invisible fence. Michael was, as he described himself in a song years later, untouchable. I believe that is what killed him. A human being can only live so long without the touch of another and can only breathe manufactured air for so many minutes.

We are left with music, memories and the shame of our own narcissistic voyeurism. As it was for so many of us, Michael’s music was a running soundtrack for my life, a powerful influence that helped shape my identity. As a young girl, I kissed a boy furtively as Michael’s song, “Rock with You,” played on my cassette player. My first real boyfriend stood for hours in front of a full-length mirror in my bedroom practicing his Michael Jackson dance moves. In quieter moments, we lay on my bed listening to “She’s Out of My Life” on the record player, both of us close to tears and full of reverence for Michael’s heartfelt emotion.

Later, when I was old enough to go out dancing with my friends, we’d all scream when we heard the rumblings of his sultry dance groove, “Don’t Stop Till You get Enough” and head to the dance floor for some serious getting down.

After college, I wrote my first memoir about growing up biracial and drew sustenance from the video for his song, “Black or White,” in which Michael portrayed race as fluid; the models in the video morphed from African to Indian to Italian to Swedish to Mongolian and back again. And he told the world that love is what matters, not skin color.

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Posted: Sunday, August 23, 2009

I never knew I'd grieve this hard this Summer.

Deborah French

I personally do not believe Michael was a child molester, there are many who disagree with me and equally there are many who do not. It is perhaps not this, however, that is the issue. If one takes the view that Michael did harm children, did the treatment he received at the hands of Tom Sneddon and a collusive hostile media which engaged in the kind of ferocious fact-building that is now de rigeur, actually achieve any real rehabilitation for Jordan Chandler or Gavin? Or was the unprecedented destruction that was brought to bear on Michael actually an excercise in intent to harm? Sneddon spent millions of dollars searching the world for children to testify against Michael in a criminal trial and could only find one family. The credibilty of Evan Chandler, a known fraudster, who mistreated his own wife and Jordan himself, went on record stating that his aim was to ruin Michael's career and get as much money as possible. Speaking for myself, there isn't enough money in the world that would compensate me for the abuse of my child. It is perhaps a little known fact that Michael himself did not want to settle the case but had wanted to fight it. Who knows whether the events of 2005 would have even happened if he had. His mental and physical health had deteriorated to such a degree in 1993 that Elizabeth Taylor and Michael's lawyers advised a vunerable and frail Michael to settle, telling him they couldn't guarantee a not guilty verdict. Michael had waived his entire fee from the Dangerous tour to give to the Heal The World Foundation, but he had to cancel it 2/3rds of the way in to deal with the allegations. He was under enormous pressure from Pepsi and the promoters to pay back lost monies and was also dealing with his own addiction to painkillers and the agony of trying to prove his innocence. Put together with the context of Michael's lost childhood and the unquestionable truth of his legendary, peerless artistry, then suddenly we are talking about a tragedy of epic proportions. So when we're reading articles or opinions like mine or watching the news; know they are cold retellings of something that, for Michael, was his life. He lived it. Everyday.
Could any of us do the same and leave behind the glorious legacy he did?

Posted: Sunday, August 23, 2009

I never knew I'd grieve this hard this Summer.

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Posted: Sunday, August 23, 2009

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Posted: Saturday, July 25, 2009

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This was a beauitfully written article portraying how just a moment of meeting his spirit touched you profoundly.

P.S: I believe lyrics you quoted are from one of my favorite songs -"Earth Song" and not "What About Us" - but the meaning is the same. Again thank you for this article. Thank You. =)

"What about sunrise? What about rain? What about killing fields? Is there still time? Did you ever stop to notice, all the blood we've shed before? Did you ever stop to notice, this crying earth, this weeping shore?”

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P.P.S I'd recommend everyone taking a look into his ballads because at the same time you're taking a look into the man and not just the myths and magic he created.

Posted: Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Untouchable Michael Jackson

I once thought of giving Michael Jackson a hug, but celebrity had put him outside of my reach. I believe that’s what killed him in the end.

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The Untouchable Michael Jackson

I once thought of giving Michael Jackson a hug, but celebrity had put him outside of my reach. I believe that’s what killed him in the end.

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