The REAL Reason Why Michael Jackson Turned His Skin White? | the detail.

Michael Jackson and his skin's radical transformation from black to white often baffles longtime fans, experts and the general public alike. In part one we documented the King of Pop's 'race erasing' transformation, his vitiligo condition and what methods he used to achieve his later lighter look.

In this video we hope to theorise Michael Jackson's complex motivations when it came to his skin, looks, and how this may give an insight into his mindset when it comes to issues of race.

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00:00 - Video Intro
00:57 - Scenario One
03:49 - Scenario Two
07:40 - Scenario Three

#MichaelJackson #Vitiligo #SkinLightening

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[rukiat]

The comments on this video are annoying, I’m really sick of how in denial the MJ fandom is and how much you lot infantilise him. The detail is not accusing him of wanting to be white, they are critically assessing the information available to us and presenting various answers as to why Michael’s skin changed.

We all know Michael Jackson had vitiligo, we know he was proud to be black and struggled with his image, and this video does not once dispute that. In fact they provide evidence for those facts. But there is also evidence to suspect that his skin change was partially deliberate, particularly when it came to his celebrity image and how he wanted to be perceived. That letter he wrote was eye-opening for me and actually helped me to understand him a bit more as a fan. I didn’t get self-hatred from that letter (which the detail never once implied in this video), what I got was a black man who saw his predecessors limitations due to race, and was determined to transcend them. What I got was someone who was very self-aware, very determined and knew how important physical appearance was when it came to stardom. Michael was very calculated; down to his mystique and his eccentricities. He is the one that even started the rumours about the elephant man bones and hyperbolic time chamber!

So rather than get mad at this video, why don’t you critically assess all the evidence provided in it and draw up your own conclusion? That is literally what was said at the end of the video. The detail never provided a solid answer as to why his skin changed because as they alluded at the end, we will truly never know the full answer -the evidence is so polarising. We can only go by what we do know and make up our own minds from there.

[GnarlsBarkley]

Vitiligo runs in my family and affecting my uncle the worst. Being a dark complexed man, vitiligo made my uncle depressed at times. The vitiligo also stripped him of a lot of his long hair. Like MJ, his condition took over most of his body. My uncle wouldn’t even go out in public because people thought he was “burned”. I’m glad more people are embracing those with vitiligo and to be a little more kind.

[feliciapillow]

Michael tried to make the best out of a bad situation. He continued to give to fans and the world. We now know, Michael had other health challenges. He remained strong and focused. This was not a weak person. He was strong and resilient. Love you Michael.

[ushercrave]

I would honestly cry if all my melanin went away and people started making fun of me and accusing me for self hate, he deserved better. RIP MJ 💜

[introspectivetonysoprano]

He had vitiligo, so he bleached certain parts of his body to even out the skin tone. His mother admitted this. There's nothing wrong with it. You'd get tired of trying to cover up spots on your skin too. He was embarrassed about it so he lied. There were already rumors that he didn't want to be black, so of course he said he never bleached his skin. But he definitely did.

[SpammytheHedgehog]

Michael Jackson will always be spiritually black no matter what color his skin is.

[MJKing]

Based upon the evidence Michael was just extremely unfortunate in his life. Nobody would believe he had vitiligo until his literal autopsy proved it, and then it became “what if he self induced it.” Anything to deny his blackness I guess. Michael privately and publicly illustrated he was proud of his black roots and wanted to be the best artist of all time, as a black man. Just because he had vitiligo doesn’t alter it. He didn’t need to look black to embody its power, what is stands for, and it’s cultural uniqueness.

[lanethaquinn]

Michael Jackson had vitiligo, by his own admission and according to his autopsy after his death.He did appear to use Benoquin to help depigment his skin, not because he wanted to be white", but as an FDA-approved treatment for his vitiligo but he used fair-colored makeup, and possibly skin-bleaching prescription creams, to cover up the uneven blotches of color caused by the illness.

[hazzelellenandersen]

Michael Jackson embodied the peak of what celebrity used to represent. Mystique. Today more and more celebrities and artists almost go out of their way to seem as normal as possible and tools like social media and the internet as a whole are utilized to grant an unprecedented level of access to their lives. This dramatic shift in the culture of celebrity is at least in part responsible for why a star as big as Michael Jackson is next to impossible to ever repeat. Other changes like the shift from hard copies of record sales to streaming services is also why we will never see album sales touch the likes of even some of Michael’s lowest selling albums, let alone Thriller. Michael Jackson represented the ultimate peak of an era, now long gone. His genius extends beyond his music and performances. The fact that to this day we are still talking about his changing appearance speaks volumes to how truly captivating his every move was. He was one of the unique talents whose very essence and persona was as compelling as the art he created. How much of it was self manufactured versus a result of his unique life and mind is almost irrelevant. Ultimately the result is the same. An artist who we will still be fixated on and fascinated with long after all of us are gone. That is truly something.

[rosie-o.]

I really appreciate how well thought out and organized this video was. It's so easy to use this topic as a point of ridicule, but I feel that this was very fair and unbiased, relying more on logic and research than hearsay. Thanks the detail for the great video!

[Wol]

You didn't say the last part of that note. The last part says

"I am not prejudice, it's just time for the first Black King, now."

[TalentedKamarty]

I believe he did use cream to even it out. Idk who he went about his acne struggles but MJ strikes me as the type to wanna make a permanent solution to a problem. Make up can wash off, if he sweats too much on stage it'll come off, get on his custom stage gear, etc. Maybe the skin lightening cream was his way to get around all of that & settle it once and for all. I think everything else that came with it like the new hairstyles was him just trying to do new styles that match or make sense with his changing complexion.

[OUTTHEMUDSERIESTV]

Honestly it doesn’t even matter what his skin color was! He was a black man and his art is more important 🐐

[Thegoat_]

The objectivity in this series. I love it, no sugar coating, just pure facts and evidence

[avachristina]

This is such a well made video. I always feel that you truly grasp aspects of Michael that many don’t. By far one of your best videos!

[winsbeyond]

Yes he had Vitiligo but I'm sure there were other reason for his drastic changes that only he knew about. There's an audio recording of him saying that he didn't want to look like Joe. That could have been one of them. Whatever the case was, those reasons he took to his grave. (Besides the Vitiligo part) Great video!

[Olly__]

So many people didn’t know he had vitiligo. Sadly it took until his autopsy to prove it beyond doubt

[grinchoi]

The irony is that as a kid Michaels changing appearance didn't matter to us. I was born in the Thriller era and grew up in the Bad era. I remember gathering around the TV years later when the Black or White music video debuted n it was amazing. His changing appearence didn't even register to us as kids. I didn't know him as a black man or white man. I just saw him as a man that was kind...and magical. Adults are the ones that placed importance on this shit that was trivial. I why MJ loved being around kids n had such a playful nature

[VeryStupid]

I was born in 1985. My fanhood of Michael began when I was 6 months old. People from later generations can't imagine how empowering it was to see a black man become the biggest star in the world. Then Bad came out... I was 3 and I didn't quite understand why he looked like a completely different person. Then came Dangerous, and some photos of him makes his skin beyond pale, but translucent. Vitiligo IS in his autopsy report, but there's much conjecture that his vitiligo was chemically induced. Did vitiligo also make him destroy his face and erase his ethnic features too? What people don't seem to realize is that when Mike was a child, black artists couldn't even have their faces on the album covers. Michael wanted to remove that obstacle. And during the filming of The Wiz, he chatted with Lena Horne. She told him stories about how her fair complexion helped her "pass for white" An extremely popular make up artist developed something called "the white on white look". Michael was reported to have said "is that guy still around? I wanna photograph as white. There's no way a truly objective person could deny that Michael had problematic black self hatred. Period. Just because he claimed to be "a proud Afriban American" doesn't mean he was being truthful. Michael lied to us fans. A lot... Need I remind you of his preposterous claim of only having 2 plastic surgeries? His black self-hatred wasn't a secret to his inner circle. Bob Jones, who was Mike's publicist for 30 years. In his book, he said Mike hated the n word, but came up with his own version of it: Splaboo. His children are white because he didn't wanna have a splaboo baby. His vanity and misguided belief that whiteness equalled beauty alienated him from his black fans, his core audience. Had he maintained his beautiful brown complexion, he could've single-handedly showed the world that black is beauty, and given immeasurable hope to black youth. Unfortunately, he chose to obliterate his face in a way no one thought was possible. I've said it a thousand times, revisionist history and the idea that he loved his blacknes is a disservice to his legacy. He was the most electrifying entertainer to ever set foot on a stage, but that does not mean he was some pseudo diety. It's not a coincidence that he had obviously white babies. I will always love Michael.... The joy he brought to my life was a gift that kept giving. Nevertheless, no objective person with critical thinking skills believes he didn't have blatant black self-hatred. In 1983, he was the best looking man on the planet, and I'm secure enough with my masculinity to say that. If time travel was real, I would go back to 1969 and hug him tightly and let him know he was as loved as he was beautiful. Michael will go down in history as one of the most complex public figures of all time. It behooves the fans to develop a more nuanced view of him. In the early 89s, Jermaine publicly stated that Michael was "trying to be white". Once he got so rich, he had more than enough money to go all the way with it. His kids don't have an ounce of African blood in them, let alone Jackson blood. If you say anything to dispute that, responding would be futile. He clearly had severe body dysmorphia (I used him as an example of what someone who has that condition (which earned me an A+), but it's deeper and darker than that (no pun intended). He referred to his bodyguards as Gorillas, and there's no need to explain how racist that was to say. Take my word for it, it damaged his relationship with the black community. As an adult, I'm deeply saddened by his issues with his blackness. Quincy Jones echoed my sentiments entirely. And lastly, early on in the recording sessions for Dangerous, he apologized to every black person in the studio for what he did to his face. He may have liked black people (during his interview with Diane Sawyer he referred to "the blacks" as if he wasn't black himself), but it's obvious he didn't want to actually look black. Understanding this inconvenient truth paints a more accurate view of Mr. Jackson.


Bonus: I follow several anti-MJ channels, and they view his fans as gullible, less than intelligent fools. I do my part to help to dispel that.Being an MJ apologist is almost an epidemic. I've seen several videos of doctors talking about his vitiligo, but they all say that that doesn't account for his drastically pale skin. Michal is legendary enough without adding. Illogical fairy tales about him.

[yyygggggg]

Michael had mental issues as far as wanting to be an eternal child, but he was NO pedophile.He was simply ruined by adults like so many children are.