Shut Up, Jermaine Jackson

[ceebeegee]

Can I just say how much I despise Jermaine Jackson? He was on Larry King last night and made a complete ass of himself, in full denial mode. Everything Michael does is wonderful and above criticism; everyone who criticizes Michael is wrong and possibly racist; there is nothingnothingnothing suspicious whatsoever about anything Michael does, or says, or feels. I don't expect Jermaine openly to criticize his brother or say he's guilty--I can understand his wanting to support his brother. However, quiet support behind the scenes with a "no comment" to the media or "I love my brother--we'll help him through this" is one thing; this angry, aggressive, attack mode is another, and just appalling. And his whole "this is nothing more than a modern-day lynching" comment just infuriated me. That kind of irresponsible rhetoric is just appalling. And can I just say how tired I am of prominent black men invoking lynching anytime they get criticized in the media for anything? Clarence Thomas, Jayson Blair, Jermaine--do you all even know what actually happened in lynchings? I suggest you do some research, and especially look at the pictures, and then have the guts to say your respective treatment in any way compares to that. If I were the relative of a lynching victim, I'd spit in your face. Those men (and a few women) were brutalized, and dragged, and hanged, and people cut off parts of their bodies for souvenirs. They were treated as worse than animals. People took pictures and sent postcards. Perhaps most importantly, lynching by its very definition abrogates the right to due process. The Santa Barbara police waiting with their dicks in their hands for MJ to turn himself in--doesn't really come close, no. They gave him more than due process.

Jermaine--whether or not these latest charges are true, Michael has serious problems. His nose is rotting away. He now looks whiter and more feminine than I do. His children are forced to wear red veils in public, and he dangled his baby over a balcony railing several stories up. He admits to sleeping in the same bed with children. And perhaps most conclusive, to me anyway, he paid $20 million to settle the first charges in 1993. An innocent person doesn't do that, Jermaine. Nope. $20 million? Don't think so. A woman called in to the show last night and asked about MJ's extensive plastic surgery and JJ got all defensive--"Why does everyone have to focus on that? He's fine, he's fine, just leave him alone, focus on what's positive." Um, JJ? Your brother is a media figure because he chooses to be. He seems to have no problem utilizing the media for his own purposes--trash-talking Sony, selling his albums, whatever--so he shouldn't be surprised when the media sometimes wants to use him for their purposes. People who act as freakishly as your brother have to expect that kind of scrutiny.

Just ugh! I despise that kind of irrational, knee-jerk, defensive mode. Look at the larger picture, JJ. Your angry, aggressive response just proved to me there's something to hide.

Comments

[ginmar.livejournal.com]

It's especially bad in the Clarence Thomas situation, because if anybody had a right to that degree of hyperbole, it was Anita Hill, who was subjected to being tarred and feathered by the media.

To be perfectly blunt, any time somebody uses this word, and there's not a rope in evidence, I'm going to call it a Godwin and have done with it.

[king-duncan.livejournal.com]

To be perfectly blunt, any time somebody uses this word, and there's not a rope in evidence, I'm going to call it a Godwin and have done with it.

Right on.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

She was certainly treated much worse than he was, although in my recollection it was Congress and not the media that dragged her name through the mud. "The scorned woman syndrome"--just remembering it is pissing me off again.

A corollary to the Godwin Law--I like it.