The phobia that exists towards Michael is rooted in racism, queerphobia (in relation to his gender nonconformity), and ableism, and can be traced primarily to the freak persona that the white media created for Michael Jackson to justify their decades-long dehumanization of him, which has caused immense damage that we unfortunately still see.
Michael did not fit any social constructed box and that caused a great anxiety in our culture and we still see this anxiety in the public consciousness.
We now live in a time when we fans are trying to restore Michael's humanity by educating people and making them understand that Michael was ultimately just a human being and that the stigmas against him are completely unjustified and must be dispelled. Unfortunately, the story is so long and the problem so deep-rooted, and new problems are constantly arising, that this struggle may continue for years to come
