Its a funeral Walsh. I hope someone is kind enough not to recite your flaws (like your vulgar fealty to Hilary Clinton in the last election) circa your memorial.

The brother had a beautiful voice, was an amazing musician, and despite your petty music critique has left a corpus musica that is peerless. And, while you might not care for Al Sharpton, the repeatedly relevant fact is that he clarifies what many people of color viscerally know.

As they used to say, perhaps "it's a black thing, you wouldn't understand." And I include anyone with an ear for soul and a knowledge of white supremacy. These anyones understand who the brother was and why and how he came to be what he is and was. It happened all in front of us all. That is sad, and beautiful.

That song (Man In the Mirror) wasn't written by Jacko.

It was written by Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard.

Siedah Garrett's birthday, by the way, was the day before Michael Jackson died.

The video did a good job at the time of brainwashing some people into thinking that Jacko was some sort of world leader, because instead of appearing in the video, he just used stock footage of JFK, MLK, Gandhi, Mother Teresa and the like, after showing stuff like war, famine, the Kennedy assassinations and Hitler and shit like that. So that explains the perceived "world leader" rhetoric that so many folks are tossing around in tribute presently.

...but I wish more that you hadn't felt compelled to write about it.

Why did you watch? It's a chick thang. As I type my wife is on my computer, the sound is on loud and all the cheap cheesy homage has been on since whatever it was checked out blares away. And this after no particular giant interest much beyond the fact that he was a good dancer in his prime, and a public freak since. I didn't hate the... whatever it was, and I can cheerfully acknowledge his undeniable talent and even cultural impact, but neither I nor my male friends can really get all that fired up about it.

About the service- nearly everything about it resonated for me. I commented to a friend, I feel like I'm in church. I am certain that this is not the universal experience of blacks, but in my personal experience of my culture, we refer to funerals as a "going home." People speak about the deceased lovingly, they sing them songs, read heartfelt words, grieve openly and share that grief with others who loved him/her. Vilifying or focusing on the person's negatives is not the focus. Remembering the legacy and the good that the person did is what matters most. Maybe it is because in so many black communities the Church institutions remind us that not one of us is infallible or perfect- we all fail and screw up, yet we all deserve forgiveness and redemption.

Michael Jackson was a horribly abused individual with many demons who, because of his profound gift, never stood a chance at a normal life. He LOVED performing and making people happy. He took great despair and emotional scarring and turned it into something beautiful that touched people all over the world. He brought joy to people's lives with his music and performances. He used his celebrity to champion important causes and gave unselfishly to many charities. I personally do not believe he molested any children and would like to remind folks that he was acquitted of all charges in a court of law by a jury of his peers. I believe that he will be vindicated and cannot wait to see all of these omniscient Salon readers eat their hateful words!

Further, as a black person I never felt like Michael had abandoned his blackness, though I clearly understood that he struggled with loving that physical blackness. It occurs to me that nearly every black person in this country has at some point or another struggled with accepting his/her own beauty. It's still common to hear people talk about "good" (straighter) hair and not being out in the sun too long for fear of getting too dark. I teach ninth graders and just this year a darker skinned male student expressed to me that he wished her were my lighter color. In 2009! It broke my heart to see the shock on his face when I told him that he was beautiful, that ALL shades of black are beautiful. He was incredulous...

Black women still overwhelmingly chemically straighten their hair, or sew/glue animals' or other humans' hair into their own so that they can have "nice", "tame", straight hair. In the not so distant past it was commonplace to see ads for skin lighteners in magazines like Ebony. So many white people in the media criticize Michael's physical transformation and suggest that blacks should see it as an affront. For me, it humanized him even more. He represents the extreme of what so many blacks experience to varying degrees- buying into the mainstream standard of beauty that is not always representative of how we look. I empathized with him, thinking back to being a little girl and wishing I had long, straight hair that my mom did not have to "press" with a hot comb while I listened to the heat and grease sizzle next to my scalp so that I could look "pretty" in my Sunday best. I understood the pain that Michael must have experienced as I recalled how my absolutely beautiful, dark skinned friends never got asked to skate or dance at the rink while rather plain, lighter skinned girls were all the rage.

Michael Jackson was born in 1958 in Indiana (a state still infamous for its racist attitudes), four years after the Brown v Board of Ed decision, a time when America was still quite segregated. He signed to Motown, a label that prided itself on its ability to appeal to white audiences by watering down soul music to make it more universal and appealing. Yes, he had issues with his physical blackness, like many blacks have had and still do have. Does anyone criticize Beyonce's super straight, blond, waist length extensions? Where is all the hoopla about Lil' Kim's self professed goals to look like Black Barbie? Are these folks any less black? Michael represented the very extreme of what black self-hatred can produce. But he was still black. He was raised in a black family, he identified with black culture and his music never lost its underlying soul. How dare anyone, especially white reporters, question Michael's blackness or define for him what it should be? Rather than ridicule and vilify him, perhaps some of these talking heads should try to spark an intelligent discussion about notions/standards of beauty in America and the kinds of psychology that would lead a man to disfigure himself so.

And perhaps one of Michael's most significant contributions is his insistence on people remembering that above all, despite race, religion, nationality, etc., we are HUMAN and this connects us more than it should ever divide us.

RIP, Michael. Your music touched millions and you will be remembered and cherished by so many.