Michael Jackson: Martyrdom and Stardom

Author: Jesus Silva (Male, 29)

Caracas, Venezuela

From the time that I was ten I had taught myself English as a foreign language through the lyrics of mythical songs as Thriller, Billie Jean and Bad. Despite in South America he was widely seen as a product of American pop industry, everyone must admit this is one of those very few individuals in History whose talent transcended the boundaries of race, culture and nationality. His life was a story of martyrdom and stardom, a unique 5 year-old black kid, born in poverty, whose superhuman talent converted him into a world megastar, but at the same time the economic head of a family at such an early age. 

This was his start into the Peter Pan tale, a man who could never grow up, who was tragically prohibited to live a normal life due to the vicious exploitation he suffered from artistic work. Once interviewed by Oprah, he confessed he was often mistreated by his own father, getting whipped to improve his dancing and singing skills and taking mockery about the negroid shape of his nose. He also faced social isolation by not being allowed to simply go to an average school and play with other kids and enjoy childhood.

Years later, during his teen age, his already overwhelming fame and wealth and the restrictions of his religious life submerged him into the lifestyle of a loner. Those were the days when vitiligo and plastic surgeries started to get as much attention as the brilliance of the great performer. Then, the grown man (still a child in the inside) found himself as the new Elephant Man in the real world we know, full of cruelty, prejudice and incomprehension. 

The eccentricity of adult Michael would not be tolerated by the mainstream media, for them, he had become the ultimate freak, his skin was too white, his surgeries were seen as self-abusive and his off-stage behavior as bizarre. Then he learned some truths of life: No matter how deep or legitimate the pain from your past can be, the world will not change its rules to give you composure or understanding. No matter how pure or justified your ideal is about what life should be like, society will not take it if it does not match its interest or morality. As a victim of his self-inflicted grief, he tried to hide into his own world and created The Neverland Ranch; but along the way he would pay the high price of exposing his self into vulnerable situations. In staying surrounded by the children of strangers’, he got in trouble.

With anguish, he pursued happiness based on the idealistic recovery of his lost childhood, until in 1993 a bombshell was dropped on the career of this careless Peter Pan. At that time, gold-diggers took advantage of his fall and got away with the money, knowing he was too emotionally devastated to fight back. For over a decade, tabloids tried so hard to destroy Jackson by declaring him guilty of a criminal conduct that legal trial denied. 

Sadly, U.S. mainstream media just could not realize that being “strange” does not mean you are a crime committer. Ever since the scandal, the King of Pop would never regain the peace of his early days, however, far beyond his tragic times, he remains as the biggest selling artist of all time with more than 750 million records sold (outdoing both The Beatles and Elvis). He’ll stay in people’s memories as a great humanitarian and charity donor. Still the world’s most famous artist, he’s gone too soon, but precociousness was always a major sign of his amazing and enigmatic life. As no one else, he brought love and joy into the hearts of billions of fans around the globe, to all of us: Forever he will be the greatest entertainer who ever lived.

Written in July 15^th, 2009.

jesussilva2001@gmail.com