Michael Jackson played the race card. Obviously this is not to be taken seriously since very few people consider Michael Jackson “black” at all. But what always bothers be about this argument is that whenever a prominent black takes a tumble, someone somewhere claims its because The Man wanted to bring him down. The white “establishment” cannot abide successful blacks. Heck, “we” went after Bill Clinton, many claimed, because he was the first metaphorically black president. Are there no celebrity blacks capable of screwing-up without the help of a white conspiracy to bring them down? And what about all of the prominent blacks who don’t (allegedly; yawn) kill their wives, (allegedly; uh huh) give Jesus juice to little boys etc. Are their successes attributable entirely to the fact that whitey hasn’t gotten around to bringing down the thunder yet?

Addendum: That is unless they’re black conservatives or blacks who say some conservative friendly things (a la Cosby). Then the refrain is “serves ‘em right.”