Is Hindsight Sympathetic? How My Views Changed in the Wake of Michael Jackson's Death

Unlike those who grew up in the previous generation, my generation didn't grow up with Michael Jackson. My generation grew up with "Wacko Jacko". Sure, we all knew his music and thought it was great, but when you're a child of the 90's, it's hard to forget all of the weird stuff that was reported about the man. From his ever-changing appearance to the child molestation allegations, we found ourselves either confused as to how this crazy man could make such good music or we thought of him as wonderful fodder for late-night comedy.

I, like many others, mocked Mr. Jackson. In high school, after the allegations of child molestation surfaced in 2003, my friends and I made our own MJ spoof. My friend was an excellent Jackson impersonator, and she had the look down when she added a black wig, red lipstick, a glove, and some big sunglasses. Her natural skin tone, lightened after spending months indoors and away from the frigid Minnesota winter outside, was almost as white as his. The short sketch included jokes about him naming his child Blanket, the alleged offering of "Jesus juice" to a young child, and his arrest.

Was it funny? Yes. Every celebrity has been mocked at one point or another, even if they are a seemingly normal individual. MJ was an even better target for such comedic abuse because, let's face it, he was a little strange.

Yet, despite all that had happened, even I knew that he was the way he was because he was so famous, and that the continued focus on him over the years only exacerbated the problem. I was also among the many who was sure he'd be convicted in 2005. I think many people were cheering against him, like they wanted to feel validated for their years of ridicule. They wanted to see a rich man fall even further from the height of his power less than a decade earlier.

When I heard on the radio that he'd died, I'm pretty sure my reaction was somewhere along the lines of "WTF!" I was on my way to a friend's house, and as soon as I got there I said, "Guess what I just heard on the radio?! Michael Jackson DIED! We looked up CNN and, sure enough, the King of Pop was dead. It left us both feeling weird. "He wasn't supposed to die," was our reaction. We both even agreed that it was tragic this happened before he was about to make his big comeback.

As the days passed, I kept up with the news, and I looked up his Wikipedia article out of curiosity. I guess I never realized just how huge he was in the 80s. It was just shortly after I was born in 1988 that he started to become Wacko Jacko, and even after his eccentricities became more apparent, people still loved him.

Now that he's gone, I feel a little guilty. I always knew in the back of my head that celebrities, even the crazy ones like Michael Jackson, were real people too, but it's something that's hard to really grasp. I think many of us get so caught up in the hype that we forget just how real these people are. Jackson's close friends and family members are at last able to share with the world what they knew all along: sure, he was troubled, but he was a good person. He was someone they truly loved and cared for.

After hearing so many positive accounts from those who actually knew him, all of the bad stuff I ever thought has slowly begun to disappear. For example, I'd always heard that he claimed to suffer from Vitiligo and that's why his skin had turned so white. I didn't believe it, but after doing some research I began to discover that it was probably true. I read up on his acquittal in 2005, and now I think that, although he probably went too far, he didn't actually hurt any children back then. Those who pressed charges were mostly likely trying to get a big settlement.

He was a tortured soul, one who obviously suffered from some mental illness thanks to years of abuse at the hands of his father, those who he thought were friends but were really exploiting him for his fame and money, and the media's constant glare.

It's sad, really, that we can't feel sympathy towards someone before they die and it becomes too late. While I'm not saying all celebrities are good people, I think we need to remind ourselves that they are people. Whether you're Michael Jackson or an average guy named Michael with barely a penny to your name, that doesn't mean you aren't human. Humans are not perfect, nor are we either entirely good or entirely evil. While we cannot allow our feelings to entirely erased the poor decisions Michael Jackson made during his life, we also should not allow those negative things to overshadow the positive things.

Besides, whether you like it or not, he made Thriller. Yes, that's right, I said it. Thriller. Even if you hated the man, you can't deny the fact that he made one of the greatest albums of all time.