I’ve had a lot of conflicting emotions about the death of Michael Jackson. I think he totally acted improperly (at the very least) with young children. I think he was beaten (viciously) by his father. I think he had some really complicated problems with being black. I think he also identified strongly as black. He made music that brought communities together (we are the world, anybody?) and he made it ok for little kids of color to be proud of who they were (for real, the number of times I’ve seen little Latino kids dressed up as Michael Jackson impersonators??? Countless).

Here’s MSNBC’s entire coverage of the memorial:

But even with all these complicated issues I have with the man–I found myself teary eyed watching the memorial. So many of my life memories are connected to his songs.

It’s good to see Michael’s family can have some peace and dignity and love at this time. No matter what their son/brother means to me or any of the rest of the public, to them–he is a son, a father, a brother. And for their sakes, I wouldn’t want him remembered in any other way.