In memoriam: Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson (1958-2009), the King of Pop, is dead. May he know the peace he never had in this life.

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In memoriam: King magazine

King magazine (2001-2009), the illest men’s magazine ever. They will put out one more print issue, the June 2009 one, and that will be it. They had the best women of any of the men’s magazine. I only bought two magazines regularly and this was one of them (The Economist was the other and now the only).

See also:

• King magazine
• Smooth magazine
• Black Men magazine
• Maxim magazine
• magazine
• The Economist

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In memoriam: Eartha Kitt

Eartha Kitt (1927-2008), American singer and actress from the 1950s and 1960s. She is best remembered for singing “Santa Baby” and playing Catwoman. She was one of the most famous black women in the world in her day. In 1952 the New York Times said, “Eartha Kitt not only looks incendiary, but she can make a song burst into flame.” Her sort of music fell out of fashion in the late 1950s with the rise of R&B and rock and roll.

See also:

• Eartha Kitt’s obituary in the New York Times.

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In memoriam: Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan

Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan (1987-2007), an American soldier. Colin Powell said it well:

Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That’s not America. Is there something wrong with a seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion that [Obama] is a Muslim and might have an association with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel particularly strong about this because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay, was of a mother at Arlington Cemetery and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone, and it gave his awards – Purple Heart, Bronze Star – showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death, he was 20 years old. And then at the very top of the head stone, it didn’t have a Christian cross. It didn’t have a Star of David. It has a crescent and star of the Islamic faith.

And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could serve his country and he gave his life.

– Colin Powell

See also:

• 9/11
• Iraq
• Islam
• black patriotism

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In memoriam: David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), American writer.

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In memoriam: Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley (1928-2008), rock and roll great. (The video shows him performing “Give Me a Break” on the American television show “Shindig!” on August 18th 1965).

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In memoriam: Sean Bell

Sean Bell, 1983-2006, shot 50 times by the New York police when leaving his bachelor party in Jamaica, Queens. He was unarmed. Yesterday the three policemen who shot him dead were found not guilty.

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