As people in the world mourn the death of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, only a few would question openly why Jackson, a black man, later changed his skin to white. But that question has actually been asked privately by almost everyone who loves his songs.
Jackson was born black. He became a musical star when he was only 11 with his brothers. The news of his death has become front- page stories in many countries in the world. Commentaries here in the United States said his achievements in music have well surpassed Elvis Presley. Jackson was truly global and omnipresent, across genres and media platforms.
The difference between Presley and Jackson is that the former was white and the later was black. Jackson's greatest achievement, perhaps, is that blacks were finally being marketed to the mainstream in music.
The first Jackson 5 album was released in 1969 on the Motown label, which carved a place in history by making black music safe for white people to enjoy.
However, people noticed that as Jackson's fame spread wider, his appearance became whiter.
Jackson himself said he had vitiligo, a disease that produces white splotches on the skin. His supporters also defended for him, saying that his skin color had nothing to do with his race.
In 1991, his song "Black or White" was released. The lyrics of that song repeatedly assured his fans that "it don't matter if you are black or white." The song was widely explained as a way for Jackson to show he wanted to cross the race boundary and many people wondered if the song title applied to Jackson himself.
Some alleged that Jackson changed his skin color because he was ashamed of being black, but he himself had never said much to the reason why.
Those who knew him well say he always maintained his black identity. As a trailblazer for a new breed of global multimedia stars, he helped create an era in which race was a piece, rather than the definition, of a person.
"I think that Michael really, in his career, just transcended race. His work and his life was sort of about un-defining race," said Bill Bottrell, who co-produced "Black or White" and worked closely with Jackson from 1986 into the early 1990s.
"He obscured the issue, or obscured it at least as far as he was concerned, or just transcended the issue," Bottrell said.
"I watched him with his friends, they came from all walks of life. He certainly surrounded himself with lots of African Americans, also a lot of white people, including me," said Bottrell.
Reena Daruwalla questioned Jackson's intention to change his skin color in the website: When a person who has spent incalculable amounts of time, energy, effort; to say nothing of actual money in getting from Black to White, one does indeed raise the eyebrows. If it actually "Don't matter if you are black or white," why try so hard to achieve Caucasian looking facial features?
Daruwalla continued that the change in skin color may well be the result of an actual and ineluctable illness rather than something achieved by design; however admittedly repeated procedures of plastic surgeries to achieve distinctly non-African American looking nose, cheekbones, chin, brow bones, lips "does not sound like a person who is particularly unconcerned with his racial characteristics."
But some Chinese Americans who joined a discussion over a local radio program in Los Angeles held that it is understandable for Jackson to try to achieve Caucasian looking. Jackson faced tremendous pressure and hardship on his way to the King of Pop at a time when racial discrimination existed and still exists.
They said time has changed. Now Barack Obama was elected the first African American president in U.S. history, and Oprah Winfrey does not have to worry about her black skin. But 20 or 30 years ago, a person's color did matter.
It was reported that workplace discrimination based on color or skin tone is still a problem in the United States. The number of complaints filed with the U.S. courts and administrative agencies is growing.
Such unlawful conduct is predicated not on a person's specific race or nationality, but on the shade of his or her skin, often involving disputes between people of the same race and among individuals who act on cultural biases based on whether a person's skin tone is lighter or darker.
(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2009)
