Pulitzer Prize winner on what Michael says

Below is a short but impactful description of an article by Pulitzer Prize winner Ms. Margo Jefferson, about Michael Jackson:

“Michael Jackson speaks for and to the inner child in all of us”

Jefferson has delved deeply, conducting extensive research into Michael’s childhood years and his unusually—and cruelly—hard-working adolescence, how his own self was formed, and the image the public has of him. No one can do this as well as she can. Not even his parents, whom she calls “tyrannical employer (Joe) and religious comforter (Catherine)”… Jefferson, an African-American and admirer of Michael Jackson’s profession, especially his first 10 years, provides a detailed account of many of the most important moments of Michael’s career and his legendary, original style. She also explores the changes in Michael’s appearance, the pride that enabled him to ignore rules and boundaries, his childlike traits, and what is sometimes called the confusion that ultimately led him to court to face his criminal allegations. From Ms. Jefferson’s perspective, although Michael was acquitted, the cost was paid at the price of everything: his career and his fame.

Jefferson also writes—very bravely—about the reality of some children: that children aged 12 to 15 do not necessarily have childlike innocence; they are curious.

“They have sexual tendencies. I don’t want to turn Michael’s accuser into a young seducer with this statement. I’m simply trying to say that the public does not acknowledge the everyday facts that anyone who has children has experienced with children, or remembers their own childhood.”

This book is an important work. Michael’s ups and downs are worth examining. The court case regarding the sexual abuse allegations against him was the most important celebrity event of 2005.

Source: eMJey / Baltimore Sun