Classic Rant #38: (July 7, 2009): Are You a Racist If You Don't Buy Into the Jackson Madness?

Sorry, I am one of the people who don't buy into this Michael Jackson madness surrounding not only his death, but his life. I just can't get so worked up about this guy, who was extremely talented but even more troubled than talented.

Rep. Peter King posted similar thoughts on YouTube, and right away, a whole bundle of people are labeling him as a racist.

Sorry, I don't buy that either.

I thought that with Barack Obama becoming President--a President elected by blacks, whites and by Americans of every racial category--we would be over this racial "hump" we have, where if you dare criticize a minority, you are termed a racist.

Boy, am I naive!

We are getting the same thing now that Jackson is being memorialized as a saint. King used words like "pedophile" in his YouTube rant, and while some might think that to be a bit harsh--Jackson was never convicted of child molestation, although he did pay off accusers--the pop idol is acknowledged to have exhibited inappropriate behavior towards minors.

And by his friend Quincy Jones' own admission, Jackson did not want to be black anymore, keeping his strange profile as sort of a combination black man/white skeleton (that's my description, not Jones').

OK, so King is a racist in the minds of some ignorant people. I am just concerned that if President Obama doesn't fulfill the country's needs, will he be given a bye because he is a black man? If one speaks out against Obama, will one be categorized as a racist?

Back to Jackson ... for all of you mourners, please get a life. This is not like the Pope passing away, or a country mourning a President after an assassination. And these dummies have allowed Al Sharpton to increase his profile, which is bad news for both blacks and whites--and for race relations in this country. The guy loves to stir things up--remember Tawana Brawley?--and he is stirring things up once again. Just in his own backyard on Long Island, a white man was beaten up by some young black teenagers who were involved in an argument that they thought he was getting involved with as he moved his car into his driveway. Where is Sharpton? In Los Angeles, of course.

I don't know where Jackson is being buried, and although I am not a religious person, I do know where he is going.