Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks area hell of a lot more Responsible for Obama than Jacko

[Perky]

It is lunacy to put MJ in the same category as these other fine souls, Due respect to the dead, but Sharpton need to stop pandering to the moment.

[liberal N proud]

1. I'll second that

[Captain Hilts]

2. I'll third it. nt

[aaaaaa5a]

3. I'll fourth it! nt

[KingFlorez]

4. Popular entertainers can impact many things

It's a bit myopic not to be able to see that. Michael transcended many boundaries that could not have been broken by political figures.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Who here said only political figures can do that?

[mopinko]

8. +1

michael jackson was accepted as an individual, with no agenda other than making people happy. accepting a principle is one thing. singing with someone is something else, and something closer to the heart.
obviously he was not the only one. but really. if you don't think he changed the way white people looked at black people, you must not have been there.

[whistler162]

47. No he followed in the footsteps of

Nat King Cole
Lionel Hampton
Ella Fitzgerald
etc.
etc.
etc.

[Odin2005]

5. +1

[quantass]

7. In terms of pop culture cross-over appeal i can see Jacko as being responsible

Jack Robinson, although in entertainment was in a time relating to deep segregation. Rosa Parks -- same thing so they are remembered deeply as part of history.

[Captain Hilts]

9. If crotch-grabbing in concerts builds bridges...

[rufus dog]

10. I have withheld my comments ... until now and then I'll duck

You are 100% correct. Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks threatened the status quo. MJ was a very influential pop star but was a song and dance man. He was extremely non threatening to the status quo, he came across as asexual, did not take controversial stands, which allowed him to become widely accepted. Off the Wall was a great break through album, for its musical content, not as a statement.

:hide: :hide: :hide:

[RollWithIt]

19. Sadly, although I'm a fan of Jackson's music, the most controversial position he ever took was....

Saying it was ok for grown men to sleep in the same bed as children who weren't even his own.

[ellisonz]

11. Jackie Robinson changed America.

Go Dodgers!

:D

[zulchzulu]

31. What about Louis Armstrong?

Or Frederick Douglass? Or Harriet Tubman? Or Soul Train? Or John Coltrane?

:hi:

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. I think Al Sharpton may be more responsible for Obama than Jackson (nt)

[Sultana]

13. LOL, at all of you getting your knickers in a wad

Hahahahahahaa :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

God, trumps all 3, can't top that.

[grantcart]

14. While I largely agree I would also say that the 9-11 year old MJ melted a lot

of cold hearts. I think that there are some people who never had an emotional connection fell in love with that cute kid.


The older MJ, just a sad sad story.

[PretzelWarrior]

15. what did Jackie Robinson do that was so great? He played pro baseball

and was a good citizen. I think Michael Jackson made African Americans and the music they predominantly listened to far more accessible to white youth. He helped hemogenize the culture a bit more so that being black or white was just a tad less important than it had been before.

Hell, I'll put Sesame Street way ahead of Jackie Robinson with creating a tolerant society in our day that paved the way for Obama.

[ellisonz]

22. Really? Without Jackie Robinson there would have been no Rosa Parks.

Jackie Robinson played in front of hostile crowds, against hostile teams, and initially despite the wishes of some of his own teammates. Not only did he play, he excelled winning Rookie of the Year in his first season with 12 home runs, a league-leading 29 steals, a .297 batting average, a .427 slugging percentage, and 125 runs scored.

"Jackie, we've got no army. There's virtually nobody on our side. No owner, no umpires, very few newspapermen. And I'm afraid that many fans may be hostile. We'll be in a tough position. We can win only if we can convince the world that I am doing this because you're a great ballplayer, and a fine gentleman."
-- Branch Rickey

If Martin Luther King Jr. was the George Washington of the civil rights movement, Jackie Robinson was Ben Franklin...

[Perky]

25. PW you need to read more about Jackie Robinson

Baseball was king in the 50s Baseball sars were as big as matinee idols. But there were two baseball worlds and evern in the North were incredibly segregated. What Branch Rickey did was absolutely heroic and as important to racial revolution in this country as was the Brown case, But it was more important than Brown in some cases because it paved the way for the nation to bavome integrated one one of its grandest stages.

Jackie character was heroic as his athleticm was superior, He was gracious when spat upon but deferred to know one between the lines, When the white man started publicly rooting for him to do wel.. When a Black man became a white boy's favorite player, when a black boy saw Jackie in Dodger Blue he began to see a post-segration future and it laid the foundation for the dismantaling of Jim Crow and the rise of the Civil Right movement.

[POAS]

16. Why discount the conributions

of any of the fine people that helped bring America to the point that Obama could become President.

Every step along the way was walked arm in arm by folks of all colors and from all walks of life. Some contributions may have been great and others minor but each person that was striving for a more fair America should be applauded and not derided or demeaned because others had a greater role.

[handmade34]

24. very nicely said

[RollWithIt]

17. MLK

100000000000000 times more responsible.

[RollWithIt]

18. Actually, if you really want to pinpoint who is most responsible.....

Sorry, but that would be George W Bush, Jr.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

20. K&R

It's too bad some are holding MJ up as a hero when he most likely was a child molester.

[Pool Hall Ace]

21. Yes, it is lunacy. Either that, or

my White friends and I were way ahead of our time by listening to Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Ohio Players, Earth Wind & Fire, Staples Singers, Gladys Knight & the Pips, O'Jays, Heat Wave, Thin Lizzy (lead by Phil Lynott, a Black Irishman), Aretha Franklin, P Funk, Sister Sledge, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell . . . I could go on, but you get the picture.

Oh yes, and we did listen to the Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson.

[scheming daemons]

23. And MLK... and Arthur Ashe... and Bill Cosby.... and yes, Colin Powell... and...

...Oprah.

[Thothmes]

27. Benjamine Davis & Sam Gravely

[GoCubsGo]

34. And his mother...

...grandparents...teachers...his own hard work and determination...

[cherokeeprogressive]

26. President Obama can credit his success to HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS

if not millions of African Americans, and people of other ethnicities as well. Trying to pin it on one, five, ten, or even a hundred individuals does the memories of those who struggled for their rights no justice whatsoever.

[avaistheone1]

28. Shocked.

Shocked. I'll tell you I am shocked.

:sarcasm:

[zulchzulu]

29. If James Brown was never around, there would be no Michael Jackson

OK... let's get real. If Jackie Robinson never made it on the scene, there would be no Thurgood Marshall. And without Thurgood Marshall, there would be no Martin Luther King... or if there was no Duke Ellington, there would be no Bill Cosby. And if there was no Bill Cosby, there would be no Tiger Woods...

You get the point...

[avaistheone1]

30. Long as you are not saying that Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King made the

same impact on our country as Michael Jackson.


The meaning and substance of Michael Jackson is pretty weak by such comparison.

[zulchzulu]

32. As a musician, I find the whole need to make a wacky video a tedious chore

What Michael Jackson helped do was make musicians who wrote great songs that should stand on their own as an artform have to spend a lot of needless time and effort to have cool hair, lip-sync for the camera, have some fucking story to tie into the song(s) and perhaps even mimic the shit when they performed on stage.

I liked Michael Jackson for his tunes, which pretty much reached their apex in the late 1980s.

Comparing Jackson to the Beatles is ridiculous. Comparing Jackson to Elvis is equally as ridiculous. Comparing Jackson to the Rosa Parks is absurd.

When I was spending lots of time and money on my own dime doing grassroots work to get Obama elected, I would venture to say that Bob Marley was more of an influence to getting Obama elected. If it has to come down to some racial bookmark, I'd happily say that Martin Luther King was the biggest influence without any doubt.

Michael Jackson? Did he even do anything on a grassroots level for Obama in 2008?

[Leo The Cleo]

41. You are actually wrong.

If none of these folks came along, there would have been other people. That's the way it goes.

[Solomon]

33. I see it still sucks to be a Jackson hater.

Why bother? The hate - it burns.

[NatBurner]

35. y'all are STILL on this shit?

al must've struck a nerve

[LiberalFighter]

36. MJ would not have had to opportunity if others had not open it up to him like Rosa Parks.

[WeDidIt]

37. I think Michael JAckson's greatest contribution was to choreography

Dancing routines changed for the better after the first time he did the moonwalk. There is far more creativity in choreography now than there was prior to Jackson.

Hell, when Fred Astaire is astounded by a person's ability to dance, you know the guy has some moves!

[sundancekid]

38. I'm 10th-ing that emotion ... the substantive aspect of breaking the color barrier

came indeed with Jackie, Rosa, Martin, John, Bobby and LBJ ... for God's sake we were marching nonviolently in the streets long before MJ had turned 10 in 1968!! Yes, many other Motown stars had paved the way - like Diana Ross etc ... BUT to make MJ a civil rights hero is REALLY REALLY REALLY stretching it. Motown stars had already gone global BEFORE the Jackson 5 arrived ... I give MJ a whole lot of MAJOR CREDIT for his contributions as an artist and a good samaritan, but Sharpton was over the top - as history tells us.

[Occam Bandage]

39. My pioneers are way more pioneery than your pioneers. nt

[Leo The Cleo]

40. Foolish to think MJ had NOTHING tto do with it

I don't think anyone would say that M had everything to do with Obama being president. I don't think that was Sharpton's assertion. However, to say that he and other blacks in the public eye (other than civil rights leaders and Jackie Robinson) had nothing to do with it is short sighted. No one would say MJ is THE reason, however it is lunacy to say that he and countless others had no effect.

[OneBlueSky]

42. Al Sharpton never met a camera he didn't like . . .

he has this really bad habit of latching on to the story of the moment, making some outrageous "definitive" statements, and then basking in the controversy that he created . . . he did it with Tawana Brawley, and he's doing it with Michael Jackson . . .

but to say that Michael Jackson had nothing to do with black progress over the past 20-30 years is just as bad as saying he was solely responsible for it . . . his music and his videos played a role, but so did the work and lives of a lot of other people -- most notably Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, and Dr. King, all of whom were way more influential than the Gloved One . . .

but, hey . . . at least Al has a decent haircut now that James Brown has passed . . . (fyi, he had patterned his hair after James' and promised keep it that way as long as JB was still alive) . . .

[Political Heretic]

43. There's always some hyperbole when someone dies.

:shrug:

[beachmom]

44. Agreed on Sharpton in general. But I'm not a fan of these back handed posts that

want to belittle MJ's contributions. It seems people are embarrassed by him, and want to go out of their way to separate him from Obama.

[maxsolomon]

45. I'm going to give the credit to Crispus Attucks

without him, no America, & therefore no presidency for Obama to be elected to!

[wyldwolf]

46. Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges

[jesus_of_suburbia]

48. MLK too. I loved MJ as an entertainer, but he can't hold a candle to those like Rosa Parks and MLK.

Oh, and I like Al most of the time.. I think he's a great man when he doesn't go overboard.