Hassina+Begum

Heal the black and white world   The pop icon, Michael Jackson was a black man in a white body. With his original skin color as being black, he transformed himself to white for reasons that are debatable. Some believe his father called him ugly and his low self-esteem caused the change, others believe he had a medical skin condition. We might never know the truth but one thing for sure is, he was definitely against judging people. He had always been a kind hearted man, and he put his life and energy into what he loved. Michael Jackson was born August 29, 1958. His father was a guitarist but didn’t carry on playing having to provide for his children. In 1960’s, he believed his children had talent so he set up a musical group. When Jackson was five years old, he became the vocalist with powerful energy. The audience loved him for his positive attitude. The Jackson 5 (group’s name) worked on an opening act for famous R&B artists, and one of them, Berry Gordy, signed them to his label in 1968. With their father as their manager, the Jackson 5 moved to Los Angeles and worked on their music. The group became very popular and made chart topping singles such as “ABC,” and “I’ll be there.” When Jackson turned thirteen, he launched his solo career, in addition to staying with his siblings in Jackson 5. The Jackson 5 were loved so much, they started to go on tours. Jackson’s solo albums became hit and he carried on his career as he won many music awards. Though his music was fantastic and meaningful, Jackson’s life wasn’t always perfect. His marriages never worked out for him and around 1994 molestation charges were put against him when a 13 year old boy claimed Jackson was inappropriate with him. He also had some financial problems going on, which caused him to sell Netherland ranch in 2008, his own amusement park. He disappeared for while, and was back for a final “curtain call,” which would have begum in July 8th, 2009. Jackson unfortunately couldn’t be there personally while the curtains closed and passed away June 25th, 2009 in Los Angeles. Michael Jackson was definitely misunderstood just like many famous people out there. His music had a lot of his ideas portrayed, especially his belief on equality. It wasn’t popular for black people in Michael’s young days to be famous, and he really wanted to change that. Michael Jackson’s ‘Black or White,’ released in 1991 was a song on color. The song is about how looks shouldn’t matter, but it’s made in such a style that people would like to listen to it. For example, it doesn’t state in the song that “Hey, skin color doesn’t matter,” but it’s a love song and romance is desired by everyone. The idea of romance playing into it makes the idea of color not being necessary “cute,” and people want to listen to that. For this reason, “But, If You're Thinkin' About My Baby It Don't Matter If You're Black Or White,” works great. Because Michael Jackson was considered “cool,” people looked up to him so they listened to what he had to say. From the song, his exact words “I’m not going to spend my life being a color,” says a lot about him as a person. He believed that such discrimination was a waste of time. What difference does it make what you look like; it’s all about who you are inside. When Michael Jackson showed up on the Oprah Winfrey show, he told her, “I’m a black American, I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am.” Michael was proud of being black, but he didn’t focus on that. For this saying, people can’t say that he was a hypocrite and that he was unhappy with his color, but he wasn’t so proud that he’d be singing songs about black pride, he was in between, on both sides. There was art even in his moves, and during that same interview when Oprah asked about his moonwalk, (which is a dance move in which he slides his feet moving backwards rapidly) he responded, “"The moonwalk came from these beautiful black kids who live in the ghettos in the inner cities, who are brilliant. They just have that natural talent for dancing any of the new, hot dances. They come up with these dances, all I did was enhance the dance." (Winfrey QTD Jackson) This shows his love for the people of his color, he included what they created in his career. Michael’s other song ‘Heal the world,’ has the same idea portrayed. This one is more about how people should look on to others. They should care about people, and help them no matter what. The exact lyrics “Heal the world make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race,” points out that this includes everybody. In the video, you see all different kinds of people with different skin colors. You even get to see Martin Luther King and Martin Luther King was the icon of unity for races. Michael Jackson, overall, was a person that cared about the equality of the world. He might have made some mistakes that the media used to make him look bad, but overall what he did was for the good. Michael Jackson won our hearts with his moon dance, and his unbelievable music but we all need to find what he really wanted us to know. Though slavery has been abolished for years now, some people just don’t change. There are still people all over the world that take pride in their own race and put down others. This, frankly speaking, is just wrong and people need to be educated on this issue. For this reason, celebrities like Michael Jackson, like to push for a change and put forth an idea they believe in. why not listen to what he spent his whole life putting across?

Works Cited List: 1. Winfrey, Oprah. "The Michael Jakcson interview: Oprah reflects". Harpo inc. 10/14/09 . 2. "Michael Jackson bipgraphy". A&E television networks. 10/14/09 .

Black or white: [] Heal the world: []

Lyrics to black and white: []

Lyrics to heal the world: []

