“Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.” No one on my AIM buddies list is quite sure what this Michael Jackson quote means, but it’s possible that it and several other quotes and quite possibly everything Michael Jackson has ever done will have to be reevaluated, following the recent bombshell that Jackson was an avid collector of Nazi videos.
The story broke Sunday in a New York Post article featuring the cringeworthy pun “Jacko kicked backo with Nazi vids.” It was then picked up by the Herald Sun, with the less cringeworthy but possibly misleading title, “Jacko liked Boys from Brazil.” It turns out that Jackson had a huge collection of Nazi movies and documentaries that he displayed on the walls at his Neverland ranch. Norman Scherer, the videotape distributor who procured the rare videos, said he assumed that Jackson just loved the military garb and lockstep marching – a perfectly normal assumption when someone reveals to you that they’re obsessed with Nazis.
So was Jackson a Nazi sympathizer, or writing some fruity concept album about Nazis, or planning on incorporating lockstep marching into his dance routines? Probably not. His video library also featured Judy Garland TV specials and dramas about troubled children. Add the context of Jackson’s own abusive childhood and it’s clear: the man was just a concerned humanist deeply struck by the plight of the oppressed, whether they be children, Judy Garland (whose lifelong personal struggles made her an icon of the gay community), or the most-murdered video game enemy of all time, Nazi soldiers. Out of all the videos in the collection, the aforementioned Boys from Brazil probably reflects Jackson’s sympathy the most: it features Nazis, troubled children and – in that it takes place in the aftermath of World War II – offscreen homosexual oppression.
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