Trying To Turn White; My Take on Michael Jackson
The great pop music composer and singer Michael Jackson became almost white. Or he tried to be.
When he died in August 2009, this black singer had trod a troubled life. His father Joseph Jackson was an abusive parent who ruled his family with an iron hand. Jackson's family preyed upon his fortune. And he died maybe from a drug overdose in his 52nd year.
Jackson started out in the music industry quite small.
He was the youngest and smallest member of the five person pop group called 'The Jackson Five'. They had about four big hits in the late 1960's and early 1970's.
"All countries are heirarchies," a socials teacher once said. "There's a top, a middle and a bottom." Yet Michael Jackson moved quickly from the bottom to the top, not only in his family but in the pop music world.
In 1982 he put out an album called 'Thriller'. Done with the aid of the top class musician and arranger Quincy Jones, the album contained many fine songs. Yet one song 'Billie Jean' stood out above all others. When Jackson combined the song with his famous Moondance, the record buyers went wild.
Now as the new MTV station played his songs on video, Jackson became a godlike star. Yet alas he ended up treading in the doomed foot steps of other American celebrities like author Ernest Hemingway, movie star Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley who just about inventted rock music.
Jackson by the end of the 1980's was a multimillionaire or maybe even a billionaire. Yet by the early 1980's he tried to turn into a white man. His youthful Afro haircut morphed into straight black hair. His once wide nose shrivelled into two nostrils. When a skin infection wormed its way into his skin, he started to bleach his body. Soon he tried to whiten his face.
While all this was going on black rap and hip-hop groups appeared that rejected Jackson's crossover music that appealed to whites and blacks.
"Elvis was a hero to most," rapped Chuck D of 'Public Enemy'. "But he never meant shit to me." Meanwhile Jackson squandered millions of dollars on houses, hotels, toys and private projects. He slept in the same bed with young boys, though it's unclear whether he ever molested them.
He married Lisa Marie Presley which some observers said was done to give Jackson a mainstream image. In any case he and Elvis Presley's daughter soon divorced. Then Jackson married again. Yet the children his wife produced, didn't look like Jackson.
Despite his immense wealth, Jackson lived in a country and world that was often tinged with white racism. Let's recap a little American history. Black people or Afro-Americans first came to the U.S. of A. as slaves.Then after the U.S. Civil War, slavery was abolished. Yet black people still remained at the bottom of society.They faced lynchings, anti-black riots and white terror, whenever they tried to get some justice.
The great civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's and the black riots and rebellions that erupted before and then immediately after the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior, swept away many racist practices. Yet black men still make up the majority of U.S. prisoners and many black people still fester in terrible and violent slums. All of this happens while a black man, namely Barack Obama sits in the White House as U.S. President.
Who can blame Michael Jackson then for trying to turn into a white man? I can't.
"I'll remember his 'Thriller' album," a doctor said to me after Jackson died. "Especially the song 'Billie Jean'." So will I and hopefully so will millions of other people. Jackson's conduct was controlled in part by white racism and his troubled childhood. I won't condemn him for anything he did. First and foremost he was a great musician.
With thanks to author Randall Sullivan for his book on Jackson called 'Untouchable:The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson' and The New Yorker magazine and its writer Bill Wyman.
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