Brittany Luce

Like a lot of long-dead celebrities, his online presence relies heavily on being reduced to straight-up memedom like TikTok dance challenges and impersonations.

There is, though, this flip side to the spliced and diced memes.

Some people are trying to connect with Jackson through a distinctly modern lens.

There's this viral image that shows a young adult version of him on a beach wearing only swim trunks.

His complexion is mostly dark except for a few parts of his body that are displaying the visible effects of vitiligo.

Mm-hmm.

The image is pure fantasy, though.

This attempt, I guess, to make Jackson seem more relatable.

But this alternate universe sidesteps the more complicated truth that while his autopsy report revealed he did indeed have vitiligo, Jackson still went to extremes to appear less and less like the Black person he was born as.

What are we to make of this?

And then there's the theory that Jackson was on the spectrum.

When I see people on TikTok talking about Michael, I'm seeing fan cam edits of how people who are in the neurodivergent community can see themselves in some of his responses to some of these interview questions.

Again, Corey Antonio Rose.

Or as one TikTok user who goes by the handle at Beauty Expeditions puts it.

And of course the Okay, for the record, that Mama Se Mama Sama Makusa chant from Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' is actually adapted from Manu Dibango's song, Sol Makosa.

I'm not sure that's strong evidence of neurodivergence.

But it is fascinating that younger people seem to be trying to extract meaning, however strange, from an artist who died before many of them were even sentient.

There's an emotional distance there for Gen Z. Like, the primary life event that Gen Z was present for was his death.

I mean, my little cultural baby memory, Beyonce single ladies, Obama, Michael Jackson dies.

Now, I wonder if that emotional distance is something the Jackson estate is counting on.