*New updated version from December 16th. I also have this article on Medium.com!
I spent some time a week ago rewatching the Black Or White video (the complete version with the “raunchy” dancing and the racial slurs on the car) and was a little shocked that the original graffiti was removed from his official YouTube channel.
The background
I knew I wasn’t experiencing the Mandala Effect when I remembered the first go around seeing this video that there were graffiti with racial slurs. Not saying I like seeing the N-word or other words like that on property, on property, but I knew what I remembered. Seeing the actual words spraypainted on those windows definitely made Michael’s idea and message obvious. He was speaking about racism.
One thing about Michael is that he was very vocal about racism his entire career. He grew up in the late 50s and definitely experienced a lot of racism being a part of a musical group that helped pave the way for many generations of black artists. In his last interview for Ebony magazine, he recalled how in the early 80s, when his superb album, Thriller was released, black artists weren’t played on television.” They said they don´t play [Black artists],” he told Ebony. “It broke my heart, but at the same time it lit something. I was saying to myself, ´I have to do something where they… I just refuse to be ignored.”
I was born in 1996. I have no cultural remembrance of this video and I never will be able to. But one thing I do have, is the ability to look into how other people who were alive and maybe full functioning people (unlike me) report on what they thought of the video. (I love anecdotal evidence!)
During my digging, I came across some great and promising Los Angeles Times and New York Times articles, which would have been great to link in this post if they were not tucked nicely behind a paywall…so I had to resort to the original and reliable Wikipedia, (which uses reliable sources, by the way) sharing this on the controversy surrounding the last minutes of the Black Or White music video:
“Jackson was sharply criticized for the final scene, especially by Entertainment Weekly which ran a featured article titled “Michael Jackson’s Video Nightmare”.[40] Concerns over its content had preceded its release: in the United Kingdom, around thirty seconds of the sequence were edited out of the video for its BBC premiere.[42] Jackson asked his fans for forgiveness, saying that the violent and suggestive behavior had been a dance-style interpretation of the animalistic instincts of a panther.[41] Jackson ordered the removal of the video’s final scenes from subsequent broadcasts. In 1993, Jackson released a digitally altered version of the final scenes, with the glass windows smashed now marred with racist and anti-Semitic graffiti: the car windows display offensive messages with racial epithets such as “Nigger Go Home” (styled as NI66eR 6O HOMe), “No More Wetbacks“, “Hitler Lives”, and a storefront door is spray-painted with “KKK Rules”. These alterations gave new reasoning for Jackson’s destruction of property.[40] (Underlining and bold added by me.)
So apparently, the original video released on premiere night did not feature the racist graffiti. It seems Michael was set on communicating that he was against racism and didn’t think viewers would assume he was just really itching to destroy a car and dance inappropriately on purpose; but he actually danced those ways to represent the slick and sharp movements of a panther, which he did transform into at the end of the video. However, he was mistaken, when the video received some criticism. Personally, I can assume that during the early 90s, Michael was communicating this sentiment about racism because of the controversy surrounding his lighter skin color, which started around the mid 80s and continued until the mid 90s. As Michael didn’t disclose his skin disorder, vitiligo until his interview with Oprah in 1993, there was a lot of talk from the general public questioning this bizarre change in his appearance. I will not be discussing his skin disorder here, because that’s not what I want to focus on, but Joseph Vogel, a journalist who has written the fabulous Man In The Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson has written this about the Black Or White music video in 2018 in The Guardian:
“The conversation surrounding Jackson at this point, however, was not about his music. It was about his race. Sure, critics said, he might sing that it “don’t matter if you’re black or white”, but then why had he turned himself white? Was he bleaching his skin? Was he ashamed of his blackness? Was he trying to appeal to every demographic, transcend every identity category in a vainglorious effort to reach greater commercial heights than Thriller?”
Art is personal and controversial.
Again, I was not even thought of in 1991, so I am not aware of the cultural significance this video had and the temperament that America was in at the time. But from what I see, Michael’s switch to the racial slurs on the car were done in response to the criticism he received from the ongoing controversy surrounding his skin color. And because this video is more than 30 years old and society and its perceptions have greatly changed as there may be more people offended by the words than digging deeper into what was trying to be communicated, there is much more to this video that can be up for interpretation for the viewer…I can assume why his estate maybe made the choice to censor those very important parts of his message.
I cannot prove this, and when I find some proof, I will link it here, but I find it interesting how after Michael’s passing in 2009, little care has been taken when it comes to preserving and representing the quality of Michael’s art and legacy. I am convinced that his estate is ran by people who actively do not care about his art and do not share the same sentiments he had about it, hence the events of 2010 happening (which I will write about) and the reconstruction of his image in order to attract “new fans”. Yes, sure, new fans are great. I became a fan the day of his death. But I didn’t become a fan after listening to Michael or checking out Xscape. I didn’t become a fan scrolling social media and seeing the new stuff his estate puts out. I saw his “old” stuff. I became a fan watching BET and getting a crash course on most of his music videos for several days following his passing. The video playing at the time, Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough in 2009 was over 30 years old. The timeless wonder of that song drew me in, along with the aged greenscreen videos in the back and his little afro and tuxedo. His gorgeous smile. That is what made me want to get to know the man that had just passed. I wanted to get to know the art he left behind.
Because I got a good sense of who Michael Jackson was, and I genuinely enjoyed and liked what I was learning, I grew interest in the newer products that were coming out. This is how you attract people. You introduce them to who the artist is. Yes, Michael is no longer here, but his art will forever be here. That is who he is, and that should never be altered, censored, or watered down in order to appease “new fans”.
In the near future, I want to write about censorship of older books like Roald Dahl and Dr. Seuss’s works, as a way to rewrite history and to vex the clear culturally influenced statements the messenger was trying to send at the time the book was written. That is the thing about art…it is often controversial, politically incorrect, direct, and outside of the box. Just look at this painting by Rene Magritte, who was deemed very problematic and controversial during his time:
What do you think he meant to communicate through this painting? Whatever it is, his sense of style in communicating his message at best must have ruffled a few feathers back then. Of course, there are people who have a hard time interpreting this type of art, but when it comes to the Black Or White music video, all future generations should have the chance to view the full art with all of its controversy, to allow a person to create their own decisions and draw their own conclusions.
To strip this video of all its natural parts in fear of a new culture and uproar from newer “fans” (if this is an attempt that that) is to shame Michael’s musical legacy and water down the person he was. I see the struggle of his estate and those who run his social media accounts…they are in charge of bringing a late 20th century artist into a 21st century world, assuming the things he spoke about are not and would not be of interest to anyone who did not grow with him or experience him while he was alive. However, I believe that people who became fans of Michael after his death do not think like this. We definitely find Michael interesting, especially now that we can see his art in its full forms. Michael cared a lot about the world and children and peace…he was a deep-thinking person who put a lot of thought into his art and the way it was presented. I love that there are still things I am beginning to unravel, as if there is no end to the incredible art and talent that is Michael Jackson. The way I discovered Michael Jackson and decided to continue my interest in him was through watching the “sensual” and graffiti-filled car be smashed, as I was curious about why he decided to communicate his message this way. It wasn’t censored or edited; it was raw.
The thing is that Michael is controversial at best. All humans are pretty controversial, some more than others. And while he is no longer here, his art and music is, and it should be kept intact and free of tampering. There are people who were born after his death who are and will become fans of his work, and if we as a society care anything about continuity…then we must preserve his intentional message behind his video.
This is why I appreciate the MJ fans who put time and work into repurposing Michael’s art for newer generations to come. Channels like SWG, Sven Nelson and mjcontent, who dedicate their time and talent to restoring Michael’s short films, music, and clips. It’s wonderful because the estate itself is selecting certain videos to remaster in 4K (Remember the Timeis one of them, Thriller is another) and they are painfully slow at this. I get it, they have bigger things on their plate to handle…but it is nice to see that there are fans who value his art enough to upgrade them to today’s current standard. Personally, that’s what I’m all about.
Let this be a message to all the music collectors out there: keep collecting! Having the original version of things is the way to go. (At least for me, that is.)
Shanedra Writes Too Much 