Even though Michael Jackson is long gone, his accolades stay untouched. He is considered to be one of the most prolific entertainers with songs as addictive as hard drugs. But with great fame comes great media scrutiny. The King of Pop was no stranger to controversies. However, the only subject that he truly considered ‘touchy’ was his skin.
Michael Jackson faced heavy criticism when he changed the color of his skin. Recently, his eldest son Prince Jackson opened up about his father’s skin condition and ideology with Mike Tyson on his podcast Hotboxin’. Prince came out purely about how his late father, who passed away in 2009, felt about his skin condition. Let’s take a look at what the son of the ‘Smooth Criminal’ singer had to say.
Prince Jackson candidly told Mike Tyson, “When I was younger, he was always explaining to me, speaking about that. I think it was even in the autopsy report. I think the cause of it is up for speculation, but it’s either vitiligo or some form of lupus contributed to the vitiligo.”
Michael Jackson had vitiligo which causes prominent pigmentation patches on the skin. This condition made MJ feel insecure about his skin which is understandable when you find yourself sitting on a pedestal so high. Prince reflects on the same saying, “He had a lot of insecurity around, kind of looking blotchy in his appearance. So he wanted to see if he could smooth out his appearance, to help with his security on his physical appearance.”
Anybody who has seen ‘The Gloved One’ in his early days, can easily say that his skin indeed changed a lot. Speaking on the matter we have the famous Oprah Winfrey. Back in 1993, she conducted an interview when the controversy around Michael Jackson’s changing color of the skin was at an all-time high. She claimed that one could not ignore the fact that he was getting whiter by the second.
As mentioned above, MJ was touchy about this topic. The same happened in the 1993 Oprah interview. Michael Jackson talked about vitiligo, a condition that runs in his family. He insisted he was a “proud Black American”. He continued, “It is something I cannot help. When people make up stories that I don’t want to be who I am, it hurts me/ It’s a problem for me. I can’t control it. But what about all the millions of people who sit in the sun to become darker, to become other than what they are. Nobody says nothing about that.”
Oprah herself mentioned that this was one of the moments in the interview where Michael Jackson got testy. However, it is understandable that MJ would behave defensively because at the time many people did not have a hint about vitiligo. MJ’s children, Prince, 27, Paris, 25, and brother Bigi, 21, hardly show up in public interviews. But this time, Prince decided to speak about his late father’s condition and has also come to embrace it in recent years.
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Despite the heavy criticism around his skin, nothing or no one could contain Michael Jackson. His legacy remains untouched and there is hardly a Pop artist who doesn’t consider MJ as their idol. Prince Jackson too believes that artists like The Weekend and Beyonce are heavily inspired by his late father as he sees their songs, music videos, and live performances. Michael Jackson not only gave us the moon walk but also made the world aware of vitiligo.
