In Michael Jackson’s remarkable career, he sold over 750 million records worldwide and composed 13 number-one singles. When record producer Berry Gordy called Jackson not only the “King of Pop,” but “simply the best entertainer who ever lived,” few could argue.
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Product of the Black freedom movement
Jackson’s career was an incredible feat. In a country founded on slavery and white supremacy, African American cultural expressions were long pushed underground and repressed. Music became an essential part of the Black freedom struggle, reflecting both the unique historical experience of the Black community and its interminable will to overcome. It is no accident that Black musicians have been at the center of every new genre or major musical development in the United States.
While media and record companies understood Black musicians’ talent and inventiveness, they denied them opportunities to showcase their music to the broader public. Instead, Black musical creations were bought off, if not outright stolen, and given to white groups to perform. Even when white and Black musicians sought artistic relationships on the basis of mutual respect and recognition, the record industry maintained strict segregation on stage, in concert halls and on the airwaves.
It took the freedom struggle of the 1960s and 1970s to shatter the record companies’ argument that Black artists could not “cross over”—sell to Black and white audiences. The success of Motown, as the country’s first major Black-owned music company, represented an increasingly assertive Black community, which had come to claim its rightful place at the center of U.S. popular culture.
This was the context that produced the Jackson 5, a Motown flagship, and the stardom of Michael Jackson in particular. Jackson both stood on the shoulders of the Black freedom movement and expanded its gains, breaking through the remaining racial barriers such as that of MTV (which had no Black musicians on regular rotation before Jackson’s “Thriller.”)
Against all odds
Jackson was born in working-class Gary, Indiana. His father, Joe, was a crane operator for U.S. Steel and his mother, Katherine, raised nine children. Indiana is a notoriously racist state with a long history of high rates of lynching and Klan membership.
During the last half of his life, Michael Jackson was a constant target of the criminal “justice” system. Although found innocent in a sexual abuse trial, Jackson was treated as a criminal by the corporate media. He was the object of non-stop attacks on his appearance and personal life. His estate was invaded on numerous occasions by the Santa Barbara police, including the largest ever police raid in Santa Barbara County.
Over many years, by insinuation or outright slander, the media turned Jackson into a figure to be feared and hated. Jackson’s music increasingly reflected on the bombardment; “Beat me, hate me/ You can never break me,” he responded with his 2001 album “HIStory.” This, indeed, was the spirit of millions of his fans who resisted the media assault, stood by his side and continued to celebrate his music.
Immediately after Jackson’s death, the media was again ready to pounce (although many old enemies suddenly pretended to be friends). Jackson’s reputation was repeatedly sullied by reminders of the racist trials he was forced to endure. Few reflected on the disrespect, scrutiny, and stress that came with Jackson’s fame.
The attacks on Jackson cannot be separated from the imposed “morality” of the capitalist system. Although he had been convicted of nothing, the media lynching relied on the narrow sexist and racist norms of U.S. society to portray him as a deviant to be hated and mocked.
That’s how the system works: Even the tiny number of workers from oppressed communities who become wealthy are not immune from attack. African American celebrities are routinely singled out and subjected to scrutiny and persecution their white peers escape.
Although he clearly stood out because of his unique talent, Michael Jackson’s life and career cannot be separated from that of the oppressed communities in the United States. His decades-long struggle against the criminal “justice” system has been shared by millions of others.
Despite it all, Jackson continued to release widely popular albums. His incredible vocal and dance abilities have become widely known and idolized worldwide. In his troubled life filled with entertainment triumphs and personal setbacks, his talent echoed through a microphone and spoke to millions of workers and oppressed people across the globe who will remember the artist for what he was: a talented person who beat the odds in racist America and brought joy to millions of working people.
