Michael Jackson is a product of Society

I finally got around to listening to Michael Jackson’s 2001 album “Invincible.”   Invincible sold 2 million copies in the USA. It isn’t surprising  that the  mainstream USA media declared that “Invincible” was a flop.  I thought Invincible was a solid album. I have to point out Michael Jackson still sells very strongly internationally and Invincible sold over 10  million copies outside of the USA.

One thing I don’t understand is why is R Kelly so respected by society, yet Michael Jackson is not?  Gary Glitter the white British pop singer was convicted of owning child porn and he also sexually abused a fourteen year old girl. Shouldn’t Glitter be scorned? I wonder why does the UK press go hard after Jackson yet not after Glitter?  R Kelly has been accused of having sexual relations with under aged girls.  Michael Jackson was also accused of sexually abusing young boys, but Jackson has been acquitted of the child molestation charges. So since Jackson has been acquitted why is he still scorned?

I don’t believe Michael Jackson is a pedophile, but I do believe he is a naive person. I also believe the issue of gender needs to be discussed since nobody wants to talk about it. The fact remains society is cynical of a grown man that may have genuine interest in helping children.  We live in a society that has very specific gender roles for men and women. Feminists state women are discriminated in society and yet some of them act as though men aren’t? Its like give me a break. I find the mainstream culture to be very misandrist at times. The Michael Jackson case is a perfect example of this misandry and society’s hatred for black men.

Recently there have been news stories about sick and perverted female teachers that sexually abuse young boys yet everyone just seems to ignore that. I wonder why? Child abuse isn’t just specific to one gender yet when women exploit kids no one seems to care. Where are the feminists on female child abusers? Or do feminists just turn a blind eye when women sexually abuse children? Where are the feminist groups when female teachers sexually exploit kids? Why are feminists silent when women abuse? Why are there these double standards? And look at the double standards its abhorrent! I mean look at Mary Kay Letourneau she’s now famous.

Now  Mary Kay Letourneau is  profiting off of her own child abuse scandal. In a bizarre twist Letourneau is now married to the young man she  sexually assaulted.  If Letourneau was overweight and looked like Rosie O Donnell do you really think the USA media would still care? Letourneau is a “thin” white woman that America considers “beautiful”. Once again the USA media loves the classic “pretty” white female victim stereotype. Yet Letourneau is no victim she is a predator and a pedophile. Entertainment Tonight covered her wedding she was even on Larry King Live and she was also interviewed by Barbara Walters.  The media have treated Letourneau’s wedding as though it was a “love story” and that’s disgusting. Letourneau is a pedophile and that’s a fact.

I doubt if Letourneau was male the media would be as enthusiastic to interview her. The American public actually has sympathy for Letourneau just because she’s a woman. So when a woman sexually abuses a young boy and has two kids with him she can become a celebrity? America is indeed a strange and twisted place. And what about the young female teacher in Florida? The female teacher is clearly a pedophile and yet the media didn’t take the case seriously because she was a woman.

I think the negative perception of men as caregivers is one of the reasons why less men become teachers and why less men do the kind of charity work that Michael Jackson does. Jackson has raised millions of dollars to help young kids yet he is treated like some kind of a monster when he is the victim.

The truth is people still believe it is weird for grown men to want to help children. If Michael Jackson was a woman  I doubt the child abuse case would even come up at all.  I doubt the media and public would think of his charity work as sinister or weird.  I think there are double standards in relation to how society treats men and women in relation to helping kids.  Jackson seems a bit too trusting of people and I think people exploit his generosity.  In the recent case it was proven that the mother of the accused has a history as a con woman and she simply wanted to exploit Jackson out of his money.

Yet R Kelly still sells out concert theatres and he always goes multi platinum. Even the so called “mainstream media” have given a shrug of the shoulders with the R Kelly child molestation case. Could it be because the alleged victims are young girls and not boys that people don’t care as much? Is it possible the mainstream media is apathetic  about the R Kelly case because the alleged victims are young black girls and not white girls?

Let’s face it the American media have a fascination with young white females that are victims of violence. CNN, Fox News, NBC, CBS,CNBC, and various other American TV and news media networks love stories about white females that are vulnerable and in danger. Its the classic white female victimization stories that sells and provides huge ratings. People seem to love stories about white girls in danger.  I actually believe because R Kelly’s alleged victims are young black girls the mainstream media and the black American media just don’t give a damn.  The white media doesn’t care because the victims are black girls and lets face it the media cares about sensationalism.

And it would be considered much more scandalous if R Kelly had been accused of sexually molesting young white girls because it would feed into white America’s own racist perceptions and beliefs about interracial sex and about black males. Yet since the alleged victims are black its just not a story the mainstream media believes they can sell to white America so they ignore the R Kelly case.

The black media also doesn’t care because R Kelly is a black male and he’s considered a hero.   I also believe since Kelly’s alleged victims are black some black people want to “protect” Kelly and try to blame the young black girls even though they are not responsible and R Kelly is.  Is it possible that people regardless of race consider it palatable for a grown man to have sex with fourteen and fifteen year old girls? I mean Kelly was married Aalyiah when she was only fifteen years old! When Aalyiah’s family found out she was sexually molested by R Kelly they had the marriage annulled.  But why didn’t Aalyiah’s family do more? Why didn’t they go after R Kelly? Kelly clearly has a pattern of behavior of a pedophile.

Vibe magazine was the first black publication that broke the story back in the 1994. I couldn’t believe it when I heard about it back then because I found it so shocking and so disgusting. And yet the rest of the black media was silent about R Kelly. There was no follow up story to the Aalyiah and R Kelly case it just vanished. It was like the black media just wanted that story to go away and it only resurfaced due to Kelly’s recent child molestation case.  R Kelly is finally going to court for the child molestation charges and the black media again are silent. Why? I think its sick that Kelly was even able to marry Aalyiah.  Different States in America have different age of consent for marriage. America is truly a very bizarre place. Why didn’t Aalyiah’s family have R Kelly charged? Why did they let R Kelly get away with molesting their daughter?  Kelly has a serious problem he is clearly a pedophile.

Now Michael Jackson has lived in exile for the past two years in Europe and the Middle East. Jackson is planning to comeback with a new album but will it sell in America?  I think with Invincible Michael finally attempted to “embrace” his black audience with this album by trying to get a more “urban” sound with Invincible. Some black people we are cynical about Michael Jackson I do like that Michael branched out and tried to change his sound. And I hope the new album Michael comes out with is a huge success. I really liked the album and there were strong songs such as butterflies, heaven can wait, you rock my world,. I was impressed with Michael changing his sound from a dance/pop sound to more a urban R&B hip hop sound. Michael Jackson is still one of the strongest R&B male singers he can hit the high notes I love his work. I really don’t care for what the mainstream USA media has to say about Michael Jackson he is a legend.

However, the one thing I find strange about Jackson isn’t that he had the monkey Bubbles, or that Neverland Ranch, it’s the confusion he had about his race I find most disturbing. Now people make jokes about Michael Jackson and call him all kinds of scatalogical names.

However, no one seems to question why does Michael want to have a more Eurocentric look and image? Why did Michael have so many nose jobs to make his nose so thin like a white person’s nose? Everybody forgets about Michael’s lips. Remember black people we tend to have more thicker lips. And now you see white actresses in Hollywood getting collegen implants in their lips because their lips are so thin.

Look at Michael Jackson’s lips they are also thin like a white person’s lips. And why is Michael’s nose so thin? I swear the Jackson family is so obsessed with whiteness to conform to Eurocentric standards of beauty. It makes sense though North America culture is over-saturated with the image of whiteness as the “only” image of beauty. All the Jackson kids including Janet have had nose jobs to make their noses appear more “thin” like white people. Why is Michael’s skin so white when he used to have dark skin?

I believe Michael Jackson is a perfect example of how racism can destroy a black person’s self esteem and sense of self worth.  Black people and white people laugh at Michael Jackson in private and call him “weirdo” or whatever. However, when I think about Michael Jackson I have  feelings  of sadness because it’s obvious racism has so polluted his mind its destroyed him in some ways.

Just Look at Jackson! Michael Jackson he used to be a very attractive black man even with the “first” nose job back in 1982.  Even with “Thriller” I thought Michael was cute. Next, when “Bad” was released in 1987 I remember I was dancing at a friends house to that CD. Michael was still black but his skin did look lighter and then by “Dangerous” in 1991 he had gone a few shades more to appear more “white”. And now well Michael doesn’t even have white skin he looks like Casper the friendly ghost.

Michael is perplexing at times because at one moment he claims he’s  proud to be black and then next moment he tries so hard to be white. It’s obvious in North America and maybe even the world that whiteness is valued and anything else is considered the “other.” I think its kind of sad though the internal confusion Michael Jackson has had for all these years about his blackness.

Pop culture is very racially stratified still. Sure young black rappers like 50 CENT are popular but 50 CENT is just a minstrel and another damaging stereotype of the black buck.  The thing I don’t understand about Michael is his ambivalence about his black roots.

The strange thing about Michael Jackson is that he tries so hard to attain white America’s acceptance and yet they are the ones that hate him the most.  Actually I take that back the UK media  are no fans of Michael Jackson either. The UK media also have an axe to grind with Jackson yet even the British respect Jackson for his talent. Michael Jackson transformed the music industry. Another thing people forget about is Jackson’s talent as a songwriter Michael is very smart he writes his own songs. A singer that is also a songwriter will be a very rich person. The money is in the songwriting. If a song is a hit the songwriter gets a lot of royalty cheques and not the singer.

I think the international community respects Michael Jackson so much more then the USA media. Despite the doom and gloom the USA media is lying to American music fans because Michael’s albums still sell millions of copies overseas. Michael Jackson does not need America to sell over 10 million records or even more he can sell that amount without the USA. Yet it wouldn’t be in the USA press  “interest” to even “admit” the truth that Jackson is viewed and respected as a  musical legend across the globe.

The white North American media have no respect for Jackson at all as a legend. Yet since Justin Timberlake is white he is celebrated by many white American  media outlets some are even calling Justin the new “king of pop”.  Justin is the “king of cultural appropriation” but he is not as talented as Michael Jackson.  Justin is just another white singer that has appropriated black culture and has profited off of it.  Whites want to see other white people “incorporate” aspects of black music its the whole Elvis Presley syndrome. White singers  are able to cross musical genres and  get rich  off of  black culture but the opposite is not true.  Look at Justin Timberlake that white boy’s vocals sounds similar to Michael Jackson’s.  He has also copied Michael’s  mannerisms, dance  moves, yet Justin Timberlake is a “big star”. Why don’t the white media go after him? Oops I forgot its perfectly acceptable for Justin Timberlake to rip off Michael Jackson’s image and music because he’s white.  Just look at the hypocrisy and racism its like give me a break.

Notice the white American media never criticize Justin for copying Michael Jackson. I can understand being “influenced” by Jackson since Usher and Chris Brown have admitted they are influenced by Jackson. However, Justin is clearly copying Michael’s voice when he sings its so obvious.

The USA tabloid industry have made millions of dollars in the early 1990s off of Michael Jackson and a few years ago about the alleged child abuse claims. Notice the USA tabloids don’t write much about Jackson these days because he’s not in the United States. Its really racist and disgusting the way the USA white tabloids have totally attempted to destroy Jackson’s reputation as a legend. Michael was acquitted of the charges two years ago and he hasn’t returned to America since. I can’t blame Michael for not wanting to return to the USA. I just wish Michael would admit or get help for whatever problems he may be having. I also wonder why he hates being black  so much?  Michael may have vitilgo it does indeed cause the skin to turn white in patches. But why is his skin so white it looks like it is bleached? I mean what does Michael expect? Michael used to be a very handsome dark skinned black man and now he looks like a ghost. Michael has to be cognizant that of course people are going to be curious about why he made the drastic changes to his body to appear more European.

A few years ago Vibe magazine had an interview with Michael but they didn’t ask Michael the tough questions. I have to admit one of the problems I have with the major glossy black mainstream magazines such as Ebony, Vibe, or Essence, is the fact they do not ask black celebrities the “tough” questions.

Its a very boring read I personally think. I understand in order for black magazines to “get” the celebrity to agree to the “interview” the publicists for the star have to sometimes “see” the questions prior to the interview. However, I have stopped buying a lot of these black magazines because there is nothing “new” or “interesting” I am going to find out about my favourite black stars.

I think if Michael Jackson wants his next album to be a big success he’s going to need the support of the black media. The black media has been more “balanced” with the articles published about Jackson. Yes the black media have criticized Jackson but they also realize they cannot alienate the black audience either. Plenty of black music fans still have a lot of love for Michael Jackson.

In the African Diaspora we just question why he refuses to answer the questions about why be decided to bleach his skin and try so hard to be white? Its kind of sad that this living legend has been humiliated so much by the USA white media.   The black press has actually been more respectful to Jackson.  I hope Michael can comeback with a hit album.