rainman1985 said:

I think, to a certain extent, you have a point about people just liking something and wanting to alter their bodies to have that something, whatever that something might be. So, if a dude wants pectoral implants without the work of exercising, to help him fill out that blazer or attract women, then he'll go get it. Fine.

Cross-racial alterations, on the other hand, seem a bit more complex. My mother once remarked how ironic it was that a neighbor of ours was roasting herself in the sun to get a complexion closer to ours, yet she refused to speak to us most of the time (and, yes, we were good neighbors ). Which isn't to suggest that every white person who tans themselves dislikes black people. But in instances where both are the case, that's an interesting paradox -- one that has its roots in the white supremacist mythology that fueled much of America's development.

The same can be said for someone such as Michael Jackson, who has spent much money to go from being a medium-toned, broad-nosed brother to a tall, male version of Helena Bonham Carter (just rented her movie with Guy Pearce and was struck anew by the similarities between her and Jackson). Again, I'll point to the phenomena of historic prejudice shown to black people (particularly within the United States) and of many light-skinned blacks responding to that white supremacist construct by trying to "pass" as whites themselves. Two quick (I'll try, honest) points:

First, Jackson fans are quick to point out his claim of having the skin disorder vitiligo (I've also heard a form of lupus). Believing, for the sake of argument, his claim, I find this interesting: Vitiligo patients have been fairly vocal about the make-up available to them. Apparently, all shades are available, but Jackson opted for a pale look. I'm woefully ignorant of the process by which he has lightened his skin to make it more uniformly pale, but I have to wonder why he chose to go light instead of just using make-up to maintain his original complexion?

Secondly, the documentary footage released last year that showed Jackson with his kids showed something I found extremely interesting. Michael's kids are extremely light-skinned. Actually, masks notwithstanding, they looked white to me. I found it interesting that MJ would try to pass off white kids as his own. His "black" genes, in most instances, would affect his biological progeny a bit more than that, I'd wager. I mean, even his siblings' biracial kids are darker than Michael's. Isn't that odd? Hmmm. The other thing that shocked me was the obvious fact that Jackson was bleaching his son's hair blond.

It's obvious, when you factor in his transformation from black to white, that adopted-child white fantasy, and the hair bleaching, that MJ as a lot of deep-seeded black-hatred issues. No, I'm not surprised that a man who lies about the extent of his obvious plastic surgery also would be in denial about his feelings about being a black man. Not surprised at all.


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[This message was edited Sat Apr 10 23:54:36 2004 by ThreadBare]

Well the lenses make 2 strikes in my book but still, nothing like what's going on w/ the king & queen of Extreme Racial Makeover... did I just come up w/ a new show?

CalhounSq said:

Oh, snap! How, scary would a show like that be??? But, come on...let's not knock MJ and Lil' Kim. They've got vitiligo issues. (Actually, that BS just doesn't fly with me. I mean, if MJ really did have vitiligo, why not just cover the light patches up with make up that matched his original skin color?)

As for Donna Summer, I'm not sure what point she was trying to make. However, I think she got a lot of flack back in the day for wearing Kabuki-like make-up on one of her album covers, too. Think folks saw it as a desire for otherness. She's married white a couple of times. I'll never forget a 70s Ebony magazine cover on which she and her first daughter Mimi appeared. Mimi was quite fair-skinned and blonde with grey eyes. Not saying that this proves an affinity for whiteness, but who knows.... (Oh, this reminds me.... Singer Deniece Williams once appeared on the cover of Jet with her blonde and blue-eyed baby boy. I couldn't help thinking that had the child been dark-skinned with distinct African-American features the two of them wouldn't have been on the cover.)

Okay, I won't even entertain the notion that those pix might've been photoshopped.

UptownDeb said:

I highly doubt those pics are photoshopped.

The first pic is from a book cover from 1984 and the second is from They Don't Care About Us video. Those blotches can be seen live in some of his videos so they can't be altered.

If u think that's 100% bleaching then he should have been dead by now. Excessive bleaching causes severe mercury poisoning.
[This message was edited Tue Apr 20 5:52:53 2004 by Seesaw]