MJ and Janet have both talked about how their father whipped them. That wasn't uncommon during that time. That was the discipline of choice for black families at the time.

If he needs his ass kicked for anything, I think he deserves an ass kicking for cheating on his wife and having another child. Especially when she dedicated her life to raising his children and trying to be a good wife.

I know everyone has their own perspective on their growing up and I would think that Michael's may be worse than the others. Especially since he was the "star" in the family.

Did anyone ever hear this conversation that MJ had with some lady about his father?

daPrettyman said:

I've heard more often than not from both MJ and Janet that their father ordered them to call them Joseph and that Joe did things that both didn't like at the time. They also said for periods they were estranged from their father because he did things neither of them approved of.

I am mixed about Joe. Like Ike Turner, Joe Jackson is the embodiment of the WRONG KIND of black man. What people don't look at is Joe's upbringing. Joe is from the South and he was raised in a time where if you even though of giving your parents the evil eye, you would get an ass whupping. They didn't play. That is how everyone did their kids. My dad's dad was a very stern man to his kids-he wasn't a Joe or an Ike, but you did not mess around.

Now I am not saying what Joe did was right and there are a lot of fabricated stories about him, but like someone said, he is a product of his time. I don't think you can judge him by today's standards.

LightOfArt said:

Some folks choose to take the Cosby approach and spoil their children
and they grow up disrespectful(not saying it's always the case but it
happens)and some choose to discipline their kids at a very young age by
spanking them for inappropriate behavior and i don't see anything wrong
with it as long as the punishment fits the crime and the child has grown
beyond toddler stage.

Chic35 said:

The Joe Simon curl kit.

No I don't and to be perfectly honest I think it's a shame that he's been characterized as some sort of demon. And Latoya and Michael get the bulk of the blame as the reason why. Dodo bird's book and the decade-long public feud w/the family, when she was just acting like a complete lunatic did a lotta damage. Was her husband partly responsible? Yea I think so. But any Jackson fan who grew up listening and watching Latoya knows that she's always been a space-cadet. She's too gullible and naive and her two-cents about this subject means NOTHING. Michael, on the hand, I feel has always been emotionally sensitive from the get-go. Maybe too sensitive. Joe's sternness mixed with his type of personality just didn't sit well. Michael wanted to have a closer father & son relationship, he wanted to discuss things outside music and business, he wanted to be hugged and kissed. He wanted to know that he had Joe's shoulder to cry on when he needed him and he obviously didn't feel like he did. That doesn't make Joe a child-abuser it just makes me believe he should have shown more affection. But just because the exterior seems tough and cold doesn't mean that he doesn't love all nine of his children. Did Joe need to show the same type of support to Jermaine, Tito, or Randy? Eh..maybe, maybe not. Each kid is different. But it was as clear as day that Michael needed it. His personality along with his stature needed it, especially as the years went by. Yet he continued to surround himself with people who didn't give a shit about him at all and it's the reason why he isn't here today. People can hate on Joe and Katherine all they want but if Michael would have allowed them into his world we probably wouldn't be discussing where he should be buried.

And to the continued discussion about belts & switches. Look, that's just the way it was people. Sorry. I got it, my father got it from his father. Until I hear a Jackson say that Joe hit them upside their head because the sun was shining then this physically abusive nonsense needs to stop. Joe & Katherine spanked their children if they thought they went out of line. Wow. Big deal. And the funny thing is that's basically all that Michael ever said. I think he used the word "beating" or "abusive" or whateva which is an error on his part but I never understood what the big bombshell was. But of course people ran with it and tried to make Joe look like he's crazy. Please. The man is far from perfect...and by the way he needs to stop talking to the media because he just sounds completely illiterate, but I blame that on age...But we need to stop the bullshit. Joseph Jackson is not the devil.

It's not the discipline Joe gave the reason some people feel a certain way about him


It's the detachment he had with his 9 older kids and the emotional abuse he inflicted on them and his wife


Bringing groupies to your sons' rooms and letting them tell your kids goodnight before you go off and bone them in the next room can damage a child, along with the verbal and emotional abuse. All the sons wanted a closer relationship with Joe. We know Michael forgave him and they were at least trying to have a close relationship (Joe was there for the trial at Michael's side, Celebrating MJ Jr.'s birthday with Michael's family and seeing the kids)

Marlon still seems to resent Joe



He's been seen as a cold hearted father and it's kinda unfair....but we probably don't know the full story of how he was as a father and why his kids seemed to resent him

bboy87 said:

How?

It's funny. I thought I was the only person who could kinda understand Joe Jackson and how he wanted to just have his kids have a better life, even though he used corporal punishment. Hell he did make them all famous and m/billionaires. I do respect his discipline in that regard and I also think that if he had not been so ignorant in many respects that it would have been amazing for that family even more so because they would have learned to save their money better and whatnot.

But I can't lie. Joe Jackson is like Ike Turner type of scum. You just get that oozy greasy pimp sensation when you see him. I'm glad he was not my daddy (I think.)

He has pretty eyes though! If he would just get a nice hot glass of shut the fuck up sometimes, it would be a good thing. If he was my family member I would never let him out in public, let alone speaking to the media. Ignint!

Yes he is that bad. I went through those feelings of 'oh poor misunderstood joe' a while ago but now I've learned much more about him and I actually dont think he gets enough flack. The stories I hear Michael tell his friend on the phone are borderline cruelty. Beating them over missing a step or not singing the right way? Thats not corporal punishment. The sex stories, the scaring them half to death with masks stories, the name calling, not showing them one ounce of love and heaps of other things hes done. Hes a horrible person. I truely believe hes a sociopath, absolutely no sense of feeling. Just lucky he didnt turn out to be a serial killer like most of them do.

Arnotts said:

I think why some wanna cut Joe some slack was because MJ and the others were "willing" to forgive him for past deeds. I've never fully credited him for taking the Jacksons out of Gary. Katherine has some input in that too even if she regretted it later. There was probably an internal struggle his children had about Joe. I mean we'll never know but how are we supposed to "look the other way" when they would even say any of it, the whippings for missing dance steps and such, the cheating over their mother. You can forgive but you can better believe they won't forget.

To say that Joe and Katherine were shitty parents is to be kind. Those kids are FUCKED UP, and I challenge anyone to say otherwise.

Why did his children have to call him Joseph as oppose to dad? That right their is bizarre, IMO. I could'nt imagine calling my father by his first name.

PrettyMan72 said:

Because he told them to. Michael and Janet both told reporters that whenever they wanted to call him daddy, he would rebuff them saying "I'm not daddy, I'm Joseph to you!" So they just called him that. It was either Joseph or Papa Joe. And as far as I know, the children still call Joseph by his first name.
[Edited 9/2/09 19:19pm]

The Joe Simon curl kit.

guitarslinger44 said:

he beat them, spankings are one thing

but when you have a kid like mj who his mom said was always real sensitive
and you trip him (wtf kinda beating is that, sounds like a bully not a father) throw them into walls and stuff. that IS abuse

if it werent for his kids joe wouldve been some kinda failed businessman. hes trying to live out through his kids
[Edited 9/2/09 20:57pm]

dearmother said:

And that's the unfortunate parts. How many fathers do you see trip their young children...on purpose?

Prospect said:

isn't that enough? the rest of it is just gravy on the asshole cake.

or some other mixed metaphor.

If anything this guy should be credited for literally moving them away from Gary to Detroit and then to California:



He's the one seated in the purple suit.

Bobby Taylor is a stone cold pimp. Game recognizes game and I am sure he saw a like minded person in Joe. Whatever happened to Bobby?

scriptgirl said:

I think he's still performing here and there.

I see him as an abuser, a person that only cared about making money, and an all around asshole.

No, I don't think that whipping a child with a belt is abuse. Hell, I've seen little brats that get no whippings whatsoever spit in their parent's face and they ought to if that parent didn't have sense enough to make that child do right. However, a child should only be whipped with a belt for something that he did wrong. Not for something he can't help like missing a dance step. That's when it becomes abuse. Not to mention the emotional abuse this man had on Michael which was much worse.

BlaqueKnight said:

guitarslinger44 said:

Thats the only thing I have issue with, is Joe getting ALL the blame. Katherine messed those kids up just as much with her puritan ideals.

Hmmmm lets see his talented teenage son grew up to get so much surgery to look like a white women and died at 50 from such a hardcore drugs that you cant even get them outside of a hospital all to sleep, so he could try to stop the voices in his head.

I'd say yeah he is pretty much a piece of shit! I think locking 12 year old in closets when they mess up in a recording session might wack you out later in life.

Not to mention also the physcial with all the burning with irons, beating with belts.

Yeah that might stick with you. I think the answer was told when he wasn't left anything in his son's will.

he needs to shut the fuck up already. He only shows his ignorance when he speaks and makes an ass out of himself on these interviews he's been doing. U KNOW they're laughing about his ass when he leaves the studio.

guitarslinger44 said:

I'm not defending either of them, but how were they "shitty parents"? Parenting doesn't come with instructions.

I highly doubt any of us KNOW the Jacksons well enough (on a personal level) to say that they didn't raise their children right.
[Edited 9/3/09 7:41am]

I think Joe was THAT bad.

Marlon, Tito, Latoya, Janet and Michael have already talked about physical/psychological abuse.
It's OK to slap a kid in the ass many times, if the kid misbehaves. My cousins are so spoiled and unbehaved that sometimes I whip them. I don't want litte brats at home.

HOWEVER, it is NOT OK to spank your kids just because they missed a step. It is NOT OK to don't allow your children to play and just enjoy their childhood. It is NOT OK to have a belt in your hands while watching your kids rehearsing...that's intimidation! I saw, somewhere, that Joe wouldn't let his kids get out of the 2 bedroom house. As soon as they arrived home, Joe would force them to rehearse until bed time. He used to book performances in Strip clubs!!! Are you imagining 4/5 years old Michael seeing boobs and asses everywhere? Are you imagining him seeing people making out?
Michael said that he used to regurgitate just by seeing his father.
Joe never allowed his children to call him dad, daddy, whatever. They had to call him Joseph. Mr. Jackson would fuck women in front of his own kids! I read somewhere that Michael once recalled seeing papa Joe with two big breasted women going into a room...I don't think they were planning to go to a church! He, apparently, never showed his kids affection, nevertheless he used to kiss and hug his last daughter (that he had outside of the marriage with a girl 20 years younger than him) in front of his kids! That's psychological abuse.
Joe Jackson kept asking Michael for money, even on Father's day.

Arnotts said:

Katherine definitely didn't help either.