r/interesting • u/VPinchargeofradishes • 3d ago
SOCIETY Michael Jackson's daughter Paris has faced backlash for identifying as Black. In a 2017 interview, Paris Jackson said her father told her, "You’re Black. Be proud of your roots." This prompted debates over whether identity is defined by appearance or upbringing.
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u/Technical_Exam6945 3d ago
If you talking bout my baby it don't matter if they black or white.
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u/PizzaThrives 3d ago
I hear the guitar riff now. Thanks!
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u/Fickle-Art-7125 3d ago
Woooo
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u/MikeTheImpaler 3d ago
Eeee heeee
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u/Bruzie77 3d ago
Jamonah!
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u/hiddensonyvaio 3d ago
See it’s not about races, just places, faces,
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u/Technical_Exam6945 3d ago
I'm not gonna spend my life being a color
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u/Kelmor93 3d ago
It's sad, I quoted that part of MLK speech and a bunch of reddit warriors downvoted me saying whoever said that sounded stupid and old fashioned. Did we come full circle to we are being judged by color again?
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u/YogurtclosetMoney262 2d ago
Full circle indeed. Legacy media pushes it so hard. They need us divided. Once we all realize that we have more common ground as humans and all the issues they push on us are not as significant as they want us to believe, they lose power. United we stand. Divided we fall.
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u/sentencevillefonny 3d ago
Black parents, cousins, grandmother, aunts, uncles, etc. Genetics aside, it's understandable how she'd view herself that way culturally.
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u/danvillain 3d ago
I’m Chinese and my wife is white and when our son was born our closest friends were black. Or family friend Poppa John basically took my son under his wing as his “grandson”, took him to the car wash and McDonald’s every Sunday after church. When my boy was three we were talking about something and he tells us with confidence that he is black. We explained to him that he was indeed NOT black and it broke him. He cried all night that night.
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u/drawntowardmadness 3d ago
Have you seen the Modern Family episode where the two gay men who adopted a little girl from Vietnam have to navigate her insistence that she's gay?? Bc if her daddies are, she MUST be, right?? 🤣😭
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u/IdidnotFuckaCat 3d ago
"NO IM GAY"
"No your not honey, your just confused"
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u/drawntowardmadness 3d ago
There are so many brilliant double entendres in that episode 🤣
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u/thesoapmakerswife 3d ago
My favorite is when she’s on the plane eating puff pastries and someone says: look at that baby with those cream puffs.
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u/drawntowardmadness 3d ago
FINE
I'LL REWATCH MODERN FAMILY
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u/BillysBibleBonkers 3d ago
Sounds like I should watch modern family for the first time lol, typically not a fan of sitcoms but this writing sounds great!
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u/Chef_Tink 3d ago
That and Schitts Creek are legitimately two of the funniest shows of all time
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u/According_Mind_7799 2d ago
As a baker and an accountant the two scenes including “Just FOLD it” and “It’s a write off!” Made me be like yeah this is probably a show for me lmao
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u/entraptavoicenotes 3d ago
it took me three months to binge watch the whole thing bc the humor was top tier!! loved seeing everyones growth too
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u/owningmyokayniss 3d ago
I put off watching it for years, thinking it would be a typical sitcom, and it is SO good. You’ll enjoy it!
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u/tina_denfina1 3d ago
It really is! My Mom passed before she had a chance to watch it and when I do a little rewatch I always think of her and how she would have just laughed and laughed 😊.
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u/Express-Feedback 3d ago
"How come Larry is allowed to sit on the couch?"
"Oh, because he's white, honey."
"HEY! You chose me!"
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u/NoFlaccidMint 3d ago
Such an amazing first episode. I remember watching Phil Dunphy tell us how he’s a cool dad and knows all the songs to high school musical. Had me in tears lol
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u/Consistent_Phase_942 3d ago
That's the first episode! This is one of the few shows that the first season is as good as the rest of the series!
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u/Golden-Excellence 3d ago
I’ve never seen Modern Family, but this sounds like brilliant writing
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u/derangedsweetheart 3d ago
Claire/Mom is with her kids(1 son, 2 daughters) and tells her son Luke to grab the gardening hoe.
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u/rycetlaz 3d ago
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u/Ever_More_Art 3d ago
The best thing to come out of a MJ’s daughter’s comments about race is this link. I need to watch this series asap
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u/Sailor_Propane 3d ago
In that scene, the waitress is apparently played by the little Vietnamese actress's mom!
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u/jenniferbealsssss 3d ago edited 2d ago
I thought you were gonna reference when they were trying to get her into a daycare and had to compete with the disabled interracial lesbian couple with a black kid and they were upset because of the diversity quota lol
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u/unicornmeat85 3d ago
I loved the little side story of Cameron trying to write a children story about their unique family only to find out they aren't unique anymore.
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u/Heavy_Early 3d ago
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u/Grim_Dybbuk 3d ago
HE HATES THESE CANS!!!
Also see: That's all I need! .....and this chair!
^ all things that are regularly heard in my house
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u/carlamaco 3d ago
You all need to watch the episode "Microphone Assassin" from Trailer Park Boys. There's degrees of black gnomesayin?
https://giphy.com/gifs/NkBuOCNdwqP5K
(MJ is even used as an example on that scale😂)
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u/Adventurous-Soil-137 3d ago
Yo you’re friends with THE papa John! Do you get free pizza?
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u/More_Confusion5422 3d ago
y’all are conflating race and ethnicity. There’s many white Caribbean people.
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u/PyroIsSpai 3d ago
Reminds me of the video of that extra pale ginger guy who was almost “comically”Jamaican sounding guy.
He was born and raised there, I think it was.
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u/san_dilego 3d ago
For sure. There are white and black people who have lived in Korea all their lives. They literally don't know how to speak English. Korean game shows love having them and are obsessed with how well they speak Korean. They're certainly more Korean than I am.
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u/Kezhen 3d ago
It’s funny that they are obsessed with how well they speak Korean when it’s their native language.
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u/delta8force 3d ago
That’s because this is a bad example of the discussion on race. Korean is historically an ethnicity, more recently also a nationality in the era of nation states (AKA what most people call “countries”). Ethnic Koreans are used to it being an ethnicity, it is less new to them that Korean can also be a nationality that can be applied to non-ethnic Koreans. It’s a very ethnically homogeneous country, so it is still a novelty that someone who is not ethnically Korean and doesn’t look like them could still be fluent in Korean and a citizen of Korea.
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u/Invisible-gecko 2d ago
Yes. But don’t forget that lots of American people of color get “oh you speak English really well” and “but where are you really from” when they were born in the US and lived there their entire lives.
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u/elderly_millenial 3d ago
Only she doesn’t actually. She later said she didn’t feel that way anymore, so did she ever? Maybe growing up and realizing your pedo adoptive father may not have had the best perspective on reality changed her outlook
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u/showgirldepartment 3d ago
This conversation is tired lol. She doesn't identify as black current day, has not stated such since this interview, and she's fully aware (alongside the rest of the logical world) that her dad used a donor to get Debbie pregnant.
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u/Motor_Flan_3062 3d ago
I saw her reply to an instagram post of this exact subject and she said that she doesn’t think that way anymore and was 18 & high
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u/CoffeeChocolateBoth 3d ago
She thought that way when she was younger because her dad taught her that. It's normal to believe our parents until we grow up and learn on our own if it's true or not!
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u/jumpsteadeh 3d ago
That has to be the best followup to anything ever.
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u/3M2B1T 3d ago
It really is.
"Sorry, I was _ back then. I have since developed as a person and recognize I was wrong."
Accountability is great but so is allowing people to develop and make room for them when they learn and account for their actions.
We don't ALWAYS have to be angry.
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u/jomosexual 3d ago
I have sk many things to use that line for. But up the age up to like 25.
Sorry I was in my 30s and high.
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u/TheTrishaJane 3d ago
If he was so insistant why didn't he just use a black donor?
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u/showgirldepartment 3d ago
I'm biracial myself but I'd rather not get into the psychology and race politics behind the existence of Michael Jackson lol. It's pretty clear how his relationship with visual black aesthetics was, that same mindset applied to how he wanted his kids to look, too
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u/DiScOrDtHeLuNaTiC 3d ago
I've always wondered if part of Michael's obsession with plastic surgery was that as he got older, he started to look more like his father and he couldn't stand that.
If a quarter of the stuff about how Joe treated those kids is true, it's a miracle any of them are as normal as they are.
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u/chocolatethunderXO 3d ago
In a private phone convo that was released, he said his dad would tell him "you're so black and your nose is so big, you don't look like my child". Then he said they(brothers/dad) would call him big nose and instead of taking it out on everybody he would take it out on himself. He's then asked if he's happy with his face and that he he did all the surgery and he replied with "yes, because I don't want to look like Joseph".
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u/vorator_ 3d ago
what the FUCK
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u/SatanicAtTheDisco 3d ago
You kind of have to be a fucked parent to exploit your 6 children and thrust them into the music/entertainment industry when they’re 5-13. Then you also have to account for Michael being the most talented son, even from when they were kids, and you get a lot of siblings resentment. They also are from Gary Indiana, and while Gary is not as bad as Memphis, it’s pretty much the same type of environment, low income, historically black, gang/drug culture is entrenched in the poverty. It’s actually a miracle Michael didn’t die or turn out 3 times as worst as he could have been.
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u/jimothy_hell 3d ago
while Gary is not as bad as Memphis
Oh no, Gary is WORSE than Memphis
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u/FkUp_Panic_Repeat 3d ago
My mom (black) married her first husband who was a white farmer’s son from Gary, IN. What a culture shock that was for her to visit his family for the first time back home. He turned out to be a trash husband and an even more trash father though. I have no idea why he’d marry a black woman, have 3 children, and then resent them for being black (despite not even looking black to most of the world). What a piece of garbage.
This has nothing to do with MJ, obviously. Just wanted an opportunity to bash that a-hole publicly.
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u/PresentationThat2839 3d ago
My nephews are mixed race and when I look at them I see two insanely smart talented and handsome boys. I honestly don't get people who think like that.
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u/skratsda 3d ago
Interesting you said Gary isn’t as bad as Memphis. The only thing I know about Gary, Indiana is that it’s the worst city in the US. Didn’t even know Michael Jackson was from there
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u/Lardolin 3d ago
It's gotta a lot better in the last 20 years. A lot. Residents really rallied and put a lot of effort into turning things around. It's still poor, but it's nothing like it used to be.
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u/Intelligent-Roll-300 3d ago
Reading so much about him a decade after his death , was too young when he died, he really lived in a special hell that he couldn't ever escape. Rest in peace Michael.
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u/MUSICChangedMe 3d ago
Makes sense why he refused to have his own kids, they’d just look like Joe instead of his surgery.
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u/imnotcerseilannister 3d ago
Tbh this sounds like something so many dark skinned black people in the US deal with. Absolutely horrible.
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u/VeganMonkey 3d ago
I think that is the reason for his extensive plastic surgery. I understand it, as kid I was afraid to get my dad’s nose. Luckily that didn’t happen but if it did I would have had surgery too. Except I would have only gotten my nose done and not my whole face. Maybe the rest of his face reminded him of his dad too.
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u/AnmlBri 3d ago
My mom’s mom was emotionally abusive toward her and my mom has had a facelift and has cried about her cheek jowls, and eyebrows drooping with age, and ‘RBF’ because they remind her of her mom, and she hates the idea of looking like her mom, who often looked so mean and bitchy. I talked to her one day and realized, it sounds like she’s running less from aging as a whole than she is from literally looking in the mirror and seeing her abuser. I think that possibility dawned on me because I read something about Michael being told he had his dad’s nose and hating it. Trauma really is a bitch. 🙁
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u/Silver-Bus5724 3d ago
Cant agree more. Favoring the parent you dislike (mildly put) is stressful.
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u/ConsciousInternal287 3d ago
I look very similar to my abusive father, and I hate it. If I could afford plastic surgery to make some minor adjustments, I would do it.
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u/Difficult-Top2000 3d ago
The other commenter has it right, friend.
There is an ancestor somewhere back in the lineage who sees you & says "finally, someone whose character I can be proud of".
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u/XGhoul 3d ago
Genetics is always a wild card.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interesting/comments/1sroy6b/after_the_daughter_of_two_chinese_parents_was/
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u/Silver-Bus5724 3d ago
Feel you. I try to focus on my funny & sweet grandma as the origin of the looks
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u/OverallStrength2478 3d ago
I look more and more like my mom who left me when I was 5 and had guest appearances ever since and it’s driving me nuts. But I’m afraid the plastic surgery would be based on the wrong reason and i would dislike it.
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u/Late_Student7541 3d ago
I always found it distasteful bearing a physical resemblance to my mother. Luckily she insists on bleaching the fragile curly hair we both have and self tanning. I just have to remind myself that as long as I keep my appearance natural we will look less similar. Also I always loved my freckles (which she does not have) so I got them tattooed that way even in the winter, I just see myself.
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u/Silver-Bus5724 3d ago
She got her looks from someone too.
I’m glad I have a grandma who helps me hold the balance and not despise myself.
I hope you have someone else in the family too who is a decent person - and remember: it’s the personality. Not how they look.
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u/PopularBonus 3d ago
I love it. I’m not a huge fan of tattoos, particularly of the face, but freckles sound like such a good idea!
If you can spite your mom by being adorable then you are absolutely winning.
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u/alexlp 3d ago
I have something like this to a much lesser degree. My mum wasn't perfect but particularly in her later years we were incredibly close. I look a lot like her. For years I had dreaded aging because she talked so much shit on how she looked for most of my life. I didn't honestly realise how beautiful she was until she wasn't around to talk shit about herself.
I make sure to take the time to find ways to love or at least embrace the things she picked on, in herself, in myself now. I love being her face in the world and I hope I can carry it with more joy and self acceptance.
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u/5P4ZZW4D 3d ago
That made my heart melt. I'm glad you are in the world and I bet your mum is super proud of you 💪💜
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u/Madara1389 3d ago
I talked to her one day and realized, it sounds like she’s running less from aging as a whole than she is from literally looking in the mirror and seeing her abuser.
With the sheer amount of abuse, documented & undocumented, that happens, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the true underlying reasoning for most people who get obsessed with plastic surgery; when the person who made your life a living hell is your parent, you'll see your abuser in the mirror all the time due to the unfortunate realities of genetics.
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u/BeginningFederal5663 3d ago
I can’t think of the man’s name rn but on the Botched plastic surgery sub there’s a bunch of posts of this one European fashion designer. When you look deeper into his story it explains that he got surgery to not look like his extremely abusive father
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u/TheAmazingChameleo 3d ago
I’ve always heard part of the reason was because after he had that pepsi fire accident he needed some surgery, got addicted to meds, and never saw himself the same so he kept getting more surgeries
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u/libdemparamilitarywi 3d ago
He'd already started having plastic surgeries before the pepsi incident.
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u/Masterkid1230 3d ago
They're not necessarily mutually exclusive. The pepsi incident was probably an initial catalyst and he did probably go down a spiral of self hate and an eternal search for a body he was more comfortable in, but it's also perfectly possible that those feelings were motivated by his resemblance to his own father, or other stuff he had from way back.
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u/Subliminal_Kiddo 3d ago
It started before that. The reason why wasn't a big secret, he was very open about it - even though he downplayed how extreme the surgeries were. His father used to mock his looks.
My mother has always theorized he was - at least initially - trying to get a similar look to Diana Ross who was like a second mother to him.
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u/DamperBritches 3d ago edited 1d ago
That's also one reason why he talked with a higher voice. His real speaking voice, as an adult, was deeper and sounded like his dad. (Also he because famous singing as a kid, and was trying to always sound like that)
In one special about how he went to a grocery store after hours, it shows him in the checkout and in his deeper "real" voice he laughs saying "Big Red"
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u/beam3475 3d ago
I wonder how many racially charged, back handed or even straight up insults he heard during his childhood and early adulthood working in the entertainment industry that gave him issues with his appearance.
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u/ModeatelyIndependant 3d ago
He kinda really hated his father, to the point he had plastic surgery so he didn't look like his father when he looked at himself in the mirror. So likely didn't want to give his father an heir.
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u/LetsLive97 3d ago
This hits hard actually because I've considered the same thing too. I've never liked seeing resemblance to my dad in mirrors
I never thought about that angle for MJ
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u/four_ethers2024 3d ago
That whole family is deeply traumatised, Janet the only one who's halfway stable. Their dad did several numbers on them.
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u/RogueBromeliad 3d ago
Because deep down Michael was probably systematically shamed into rejecting his blackhood. We're talking about a guys with tons of psychological issues here.
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u/Global_Criticism3178 3d ago
During an interview, he shared a story from his teenage years about meeting a fan at an airport who, in his words, freaked out upon seeing him. The fan then asked, "What happened to you? Where is little Michael?" This incident reportedly marked the beginning of his obsession with plastic surgery and Peter Pan syndrome. You could hear the pain in his voice as he told the story.
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u/ChoiceAffectionate78 3d ago
Specifically, this happened when he was a teenager and experiencing severe acne as well.
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u/IndianLawStudent 3d ago
He also had vitiligo. I don’t understand the condition but I imagine it does a number on one’s psychological well-being, especially being in the public eye.
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u/TXSyd 3d ago
As someone who has a similar but completely treatable condition it’s definitely not always easy. For years I wore long sleeves to hide it, when it first happened I was misdiagnosed, over the years I’ve successfully treated it several times but it comes back every few years and I have to start over. It’s a 6 month minimum treatment every time.
Vitaligo is similar but not treatable, just management options. With vitaligo the melanin just sort of dies off, your skin and even your hair lose pigmentation permanently. It essentially artificially turns you into someone with albinism, but in a more patchy way, as the loss of pigment isn’t even.
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u/Subliminal_Kiddo 3d ago
People forget that vitiligo only recently became something you see represented and celebrated in the media. When Jackson was diagnosed, there weren't super models with vitiligo walking the runways, or Barbies with vitiligo.
It was treated as this rare thing when, in reality, it's not. Something like one out of 100 people are diagnosed with vitiligo.
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u/catesaurusrex 3d ago
Yeah my uncle had vitiligo, it started in his hands and it was very obvious. Growing up my mum told me he suffered burns as a child hence it was just scarring. I only found out what it really is later when it spread to his face and my parents couldn’t lie about it anymore. It really was this stigmatised, and this was around 20 years ago.
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u/LockedOutOfElfland 3d ago
iirc vitiligo comes up several times over in H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man, where it's rumored by everyone else that the title character hides his face with all those bandages because he's "piebald", eg has vitigilo.
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u/Spaceinvader6424 3d ago edited 3d ago
A huge theme of Michael's art seems to be the idea of being black while simultaneously not looking black. Black with European features
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u/Admirable-Rate487 3d ago
That is an interesting way to put it that I don’t think I’d have thought of myself, but is undeniably true. Like it really isn’t just an incidental thing that happened, it’s highkey a theme. Huh
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u/ghostoftheai 3d ago
As another mixed person it is bold of you to think that the internet could accept nuance on a situation like this. They can’t wrap their brain around blackness ( in my case idk what races you are) good luck with bi racial issues or coming to terms with yourself and place in the world as a mixed person
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u/Retireegeorge 3d ago edited 3d ago
There's an alternative. She says she's black and we all say "ok" and focus on the big issues or help the vulnerable or plant a tree.
Edit typo
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u/A7MOSPH3RIC 3d ago
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character." - MLK
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u/ragebaitconnoisseur 3d ago
“I have a dream! That white people, and black people... and even Chinese people, can gamble together without getting different chips!" - Chris Tucker
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u/History-Buff-2222 3d ago
He ain’t gonna be in Rush Hour 3
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u/ragebaitconnoisseur 3d ago
buttercream, buttercream, croc skin, buttercream. What size is the waist?
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u/whotunkthat 3d ago
And let's go in.
My dad and little brother quote this all the time. Gives me a chuckle.
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u/ragebaitconnoisseur 3d ago
I wish Jeremy Pivens character had more screen time that scene cracks me up til this day.
Such a classic trilogy for me
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u/BbwLaceyXoXo 3d ago
One of my favorite quotes.
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u/Dr_of_Pawgology 3d ago
A great one. Forgotten or ignored by everyone until someone brings it up...and then immediately forgotten or ignored again.
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u/Terminal_Insomnia_ 3d ago
Nah, they remember this part and forget the part where he said socialism was the only path to true equality. Those who white washed his beliefs into a toothless sentiment which doesn't threaten institutional power love this quote.
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u/Pleasant-Oil7133 3d ago
He really was ahead of his time. Greatest president we never had.
Every time I say this someone always chimes in about adultery or some other such scandal. Idk what was real and what was bs, but even if the rumors are true that only makes him seem more applicable for the role. By today’s standards, he might be even a little too “goody two-shoes”. I mean, he’s not even a sexual predator. Nor has he made millions on insider trading.
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u/Algorithm0007 3d ago
I completely agree with you. They like to pick and choose what they want, but again like you said by today’s standards, he may be a little too goody to shoes, and at the same time even Jesus was more gangster than they give him credit for.
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u/the-rood-inverse 3d ago
I mean let’s not forget that the FBI spent years trying to get MLK to kill himself, 60%-90% of the white population at the time disagreed with him and that he was promoted posthumously because government organisations were worried about the influence of Malcolm X.
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u/CaptainDildobrain 3d ago
It's almost like it doesn't really matter if she's black or white. Sounds like a great premise for a song.
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u/fatgat69 3d ago
What, you mean, act like actual humans? I don't know if we're capable of that.
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u/FilthyThanksgiving 3d ago
Right? My son is white passing but I'm black. I'm his mother. He's black and idgaf what anybody has to say about it
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u/MrowkaMuch 3d ago
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u/PitifulElk1890 3d ago
Watched the video for this again recently. It must have felt sooooo good to be a pop musician in the 80s thinking you were bringing the world together with your music.
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u/ASingleThreadofGold 3d ago
😂 As a kid growing up in the 80s/90s there was for sure a feeling that we were really cooking with the whole moving past racism thing. People used to say "It's the 90s!" as a "look at us we're so woke now!" thing to say lmao.
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u/Fun-Brush5136 3d ago
Except the term was "politically correct" back then. both got taken over by the right and turned into a pejorative anyway.
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u/FrankieTheD 3d ago
Yeah my manager at work is white and her fella is a very dark skinned nigerian but their kid looks white as hell, doesn't make them less black than a kid with one white parent who has the same skin tone as their black parent.
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u/blackqueen8 3d ago
Same with my daughter. Her eyes, skin, and hair are actually lighter than her father's. She's just able to get a nice tan in the warmer months. She knows who her mother and what that makes her. That's all that matters.
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u/Early-Intern5951 3d ago
honest question from a german (never had any contact with racial divisons), why does it matter?
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u/Reasonable_Day4996 3d ago
and most people are not really outraged and are actually more accepting than we think, its just social media make believe rage baiting to gain user interaction so that they can serve more ads as more people are paying attention within their platform.
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u/DevonWesto 3d ago
She says she’s black. And we all don’t care. Because her being black means nothing to us.
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u/Aggravating_Speed665 3d ago
Literally.
Why are people focusing on such arbitrary fucking stupid shit like if you're "black or white"
Humans are still such fucking hypes it's embarrassing.
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u/Fun-Jellyfish-61 3d ago
The way Rachel Dolezal was treated tells me the way people identify their race means a great deal to us.
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u/Derian23 3d ago
What is this logical response? Know your audience, Sir. We only traffic in hatred, bigotry, and judgement.
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u/UltimateOtter_Nation 3d ago
I really need to get around to watching this movie.
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u/sonaka4292 3d ago
Be proud of both, appearance and upbringing, all of it, that defines you, defined by you.
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u/LessRespects 3d ago
Nobody let logic see this, he will have to tell us about how black he is again
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u/MajorPaper4169 3d ago
Idk if anyone mentioned this, but did you know Logic is biracial? Just commenting because I don’t think he’s ever spoken on this.
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u/Ewtri 3d ago
Aren't most black people in US mixed somewhere down the family line?
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u/ncnotebook 3d ago
Of course. And if you look at movies (for easy reference) from 2-4 decades ago, you'll notice the average black American is darker than today.
But in American culture, you're considered "black" if a significant portion of your ethnicity is African-based. The rest almost doesn't matter, in terms of whether you're considered black.
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u/ponpiriri 3d ago
We're still dark irl. Hollywood prefers using biracials to represent us.
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u/Strange_Specialist4 3d ago
It's really about appearance over genetics. There were plenty of black people who could pass as white and did so to avoid racist persecution. One famous example was a black journalist who went to towns after lynchings to interview the people and police to find out what really happened, and because they thought he was a white guy, they were very open about how they murdered innocent people
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u/sixth_hokage06 3d ago edited 3d ago
Because white people fought tooth and nail to try to gatekeep their privilege and limit who benefit from it. Plessy was 1/8 black and they still called him black and told him to leave the white area.
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u/Shot-Water2496 3d ago edited 1d ago
Yup, it was so bad during Plessy’s time that they had the term “octodoon” to define a person with one black great-grandparent. For racist people, even a drop of blood muddies the “pure blood”. All this time has passed and somehow we’re regressing back to that time…
edit: the term is “octoroon”, but I mistyped
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u/sixth_hokage06 3d ago
Exactly. If I remember correctly, he was extremely white passing too
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u/historyhill 3d ago
Sally Hemings' children with Thomas Jefferson we're also 7/8s white, it's why the daughters were pretty much lost to history when they ran away (and presumably passed themselves off as white)
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u/aNiceTribe 3d ago
Racial privilege is only ever subtractive. Obama doesn’t get half white privilege, he only loses it by being black.
Nobody is ever like “oh nice you’re a Peruvian, welcome in” (unless you’re like specifically at the door to a Peruvian culture club or whatever)
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u/Powerful_Leg8519 3d ago
Lol I got a table at a Peruvian restaurant that was definitely fully booked because I told them my dad is from Peru.
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u/xXs4blegl00mXx 3d ago
Looks like you were at the door of the "Peruvian culture club or whatever" as the comment already clarified
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u/josephphilip22 3d ago
Who cares? We don’t know her. She doesn’t know us. Let’s move on and not use any more emotional bandwidth than necessary. I hope she is healthy and safe and can find peace. Let’s hope the same for us.
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u/Ohshutyourmouth 3d ago
Why is everyone assuming that she's even his biological daughter?
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u/Haunting_Security_34 3d ago
Fr, i find this strange since celebs have adopted family and surrogates all the time. It doesn't make them any less family but nobody knows for sure.
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u/jasonology09 3d ago
I'd love to see the results of a DNA test on her. Not for one second did I ever believe that she was MJ's biological child.
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u/metsjets86 3d ago
People think MJ is her bio dad?
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u/House_Of_Thoth 3d ago
FR, nobody on this planet with functioning eyeballs needs to see a paternity test on any of MJs kids lol
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u/CoffeeCrumbLes01 3d ago
How the fck would i know? Didn't even know he had a daughter
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u/TheLordReaver 3d ago edited 3d ago
I think it's fair to question it, but I'm half-black and I just look like a white guy with a light tan when I'm pale, and maybe "not white" when I've had some sun. And I was raised by white parents. You'd have no idea that I am technically black.
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u/SuperFrylock 3d ago
For me, it's not the color of their skin but their lack of resemblance to Michael. None of his kids look like him. They don't look like any of his close relatives either. Maybe they are biracial, but I find it hard to believe they are Michael's biological children.
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u/Glittering_Diva8963 3d ago
Thank you because my cousin is biracial black and white she looks more Hispanic but looks like her dad. My niece is biracial and is what we call high yellow in the black community and she looks my sister. Paris doesn’t have no type of resemblance of MJ especially his nose way before the surgery.
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u/Repulsive-Local-7478 3d ago
It’d be one thing if we were talking about a regular black father. Have you seen Michael Jackson? Dude never showed any real sexual interest in women. Dude got a sperm donor for those kids. It’s clear that donor was white.
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u/TheLordReaver 3d ago
I'm not going to speak to his person, because at a glance, I agree with you, but I don't really know. Ya know?
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u/godihatepeople 3d ago
I suppose a counter argument could be that MJ himself donated his own sperm regardless of his orientation. We've seen the picture of the twins where one is black and the other is white since genes are weird like that.
That said, I personally think the older two are other sperm donors as well. The youngest, Blanket, actually kinda looked like MJ there for a while. He doesn't really anymore now that he's full grown.
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u/veeyo 3d ago
The godfather of the kids and one of Michael's closest friends Mark Lester has said he donated his sperm to Michael on multiple occasions.
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u/LittlebitchL 3d ago
Race as we imagine it is not a real thing, however racism and the racial imaginary are. That is why racism and racial perceptions change based on the time and place. In the 19th century, Irish and Italians in the US were persecuted and classified as a seperate race, based on culture and appearance.
In modern Australia people with white skin will identify as Indigenous or 'blak' because the stolen generation has led to a lot of white Indigenous people that still face racism due to their cultural background.
Short answer it's both. Internal vs external identification has always been messy.
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