From ColorLines: Michael Jackson’s “Mark” on the World

Hat tip to Jack & Jill Politics.

The sister is Tammy Johnson, the face of Racewire at ColorLines.org. She writes:

He tipped his hat and moonwalked across the stage like no one had ever before. Even Fred Astaire had to give Michael his props. But today, Thursday, June 25, the King of Pop is dead. Michael Jackson’s made his mark on the world, body and soul. But what we must not forget is that world marked Jackson as well. In his last days, assimilation and denial were sadly written all over his face. In death, we pray that peace finally finds the music man.

Tammy Johnson is

the Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Applied Research Center (ARC) has many years experience as a community organizer, trainer and writer versed in race and public policy. Inspired by her family’s dedication to the struggle for civil rights, Johnson cut her activist teeth as president of the Black Student Union at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and as president of the Wisconsin Statewide Student Association. A Tennessee native, Johnson lived for many years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she was Coalition Organizer for Wisconsin Citizen Action, Director of Progressive Milwaukee, and Board Member of the Wisconsin Community Fund. She is a former board member of the National Organizer Alliance.

Johnson has authored and edited several reports on race and equity issues, including four editions of the California Report Card on Racial Equity, and Race, Education and No Child Left Behind: A Guide for Journalists. She has become a widely recognized for her knowledge of racially equitable public policy practices, and has appeared in various broadcast, online and print media outlets on the subject. Johnson has written for and been featured in a number of publications, radio programs and online journals, including AlterNet, The Huffington Post, Leadership and ColorLines magazines.

I’d like to add that along with his old, beautiful big nose and his big Afro, I’d like to see him with the friends and lovers who were absent and hidden and who should have been there with him openly and honestly.

~ by blksista on July 3, 2009.