Thoughts Before Leaving Neverland

Liam Mickulas-Mesco, Contributor

It seems that the 21st century’s most recent victim of Cancel Culture is none other than the King Of Pop, Michael Jackson.  What a time to be alive. For those of you who don’t know, Cancel Culture is no longer supporting a person of note because of a controversy. Why are people getting so mad at Michael though? It’s something original that has never been heard before. It’s something that has only recently been brought up. It is the claim that Michael Jackson… is a pedophile.

Yeah, okay, we’ve all heard this before. Michael slept with kids, Michael gave them alcohol, and Michael taught them how to… um… do stuff. To themselves. That’s all I can say here. These claims were made during either the 1993 or 2005 cases Michael had to put himself through and they had not a shred of evidence to their names. Well, that isn’t completely true. Michael Jackson did sleep with kids, however, not in the way you’re thinking. The bed was big and people who slept in it with him, Macaulay Culkin for example, stated that nothing ever happened in the bed between himself, Michael, or any other kids in Neverland. In a 1995 interview when the question is brought up, Michael responds by saying “I have never invited anyone into my bed ever. Children love me, I love them, they follow me. They wanna be with me. But anyone can come in my bed”. This is something that people tend to just skip over and ignore.

Now, here we are, at least 14 years later from the last trial. Michael Jackson is once again being paraded around as the punching bag he tends to be seen as. This time, it’s worse. He died ten years ago and isn’t here to defend himself. There are two alleged victims of Michael Jackson in the two part documentary, Wade Robson and James Safechuck. They both defended Michael when he was faced with molestation allegations, and Robson defended him again as an adult when new allegations came up. Wade continued to defend Michael and his legacy until 2013, where he changed his story and announced he had been abused by Michael Jackson.

There should be a lot of skepticism about the documentary, but unsurprisingly, the internet doesn’t care. All the masses do is read the headline and skip the facts. Although it is my personal belief that Michael Jackson would never intentionally hurt a child, let me say for the record that I was not there. Only James and Wade were. The problem with this is that several viewers of the documentary have claimed that it doesn’t present any facts and heavily relies on editing and shock value. I have not yet seen the documentary, but I can understand why it would happen. Michael was investigated by the FBI for around 10 years and nothing was ever found that could link him to being a child molester.

The effect that this film is having on the Moonwalker (Michael’s fanbase) community and the Jackson family is catastrophic. It has split a lot of us apart and turned us into almost rabid fans, looking for someone to suggest Michael was a nonce just so we can prove them wrong. Although it’s bad for us, it’s worse for the family and the estate. Something Michael Jackson always fought against was tabloids. He despised them with every cell in his body. It should come as no shock that the majority of websites covering the family are online tabloids. Because they are tabloids, I can’t confirm if anything is true because they can’t confirm if anything is true. With that being said, there are rumors that this documentary has negatively impacted the health of Katherine Jackson, the Jackson Matriarch. I do doubt this is true as the Jackson’s are doing their best to hide the film from her, but this is something that people need to realize. Leaving Neverland has a real impact on lives.

The aftermath of this “documentary” is actually terrifying. In at least two nations part of the British Commonwealth, his music is being dropped from the radio stations. Online, Michael’s family is being harassed, his own daughter having to deal with this. Michael has also had a statue of him torn down in the United Kingdom. The worst of it is on the internet. The documentary has started a wave of people on social media trying to harass and attack Jackson and his fans and it’s just pathetic. On the other side, fans are combing through records, photos, and tweets from the accusers as well as people who have worked close to Michael Jackson. They’ve found some pretty damning things, but nobody in the mainstream media is giving those things recognition as they’re so bent on destroying a dead man’s legacy. And to me, that’s a shame. It shouldn’t be possible for two people to ruin a family. It shouldn’t be possible for two people to open a 14 year-old wound. But they did. And that is inexcusable.  

 

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