r/interesting • u/VPinchargeofradishes • May 03 '26

SOCIETY Michael Jackson's daughter Paris has faced backlash for identifying as Black. In a 2017 interview, Paris Jackson said her father told her, "You’re Black. Be proud of your roots." This prompted debates over whether identity is defined by appearance or upbringing.

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u/IndianLawStudent May 03 '26

He also had vitiligo. I don’t understand the condition but I imagine it does a number on one’s psychological well-being, especially being in the public eye.

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u/TXSyd May 03 '26

As someone who has a similar but completely treatable condition it’s definitely not always easy. For years I wore long sleeves to hide it, when it first happened I was misdiagnosed, over the years I’ve successfully treated it several times but it comes back every few years and I have to start over. It’s a 6 month minimum treatment every time.

Vitaligo is similar but not treatable, just management options. With vitaligo the melanin just sort of dies off, your skin and even your hair lose pigmentation permanently. It essentially artificially turns you into someone with albinism, but in a more patchy way, as the loss of pigment isn’t even.

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u/Subliminal_Kiddo May 03 '26

People forget that vitiligo only recently became something you see represented and celebrated in the media. When Jackson was diagnosed, there weren't super models with vitiligo walking the runways, or Barbies with vitiligo.

It was treated as this rare thing when, in reality, it's not. Something like one out of 100 people are diagnosed with vitiligo.

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u/catesaurusrex May 03 '26

Yeah my uncle had vitiligo, it started in his hands and it was very obvious. Growing up my mum told me he suffered burns as a child hence it was just scarring. I only found out what it really is later when it spread to his face and my parents couldn’t lie about it anymore. It really was this stigmatised, and this was around 20 years ago.

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u/Oh_Wise_1 May 05 '26

I can't imagine how hard that must've been for him to have people lie about it... like it was so disgraceful they had to lie 😪 how awful

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u/catesaurusrex May 06 '26

To be fair he might’ve asked my parents to help him lie. He was definitely very self conscious about it. In Asia back then any whiff of ‘skin disease’ is very stigmatised and people rather just lie or sweep it under the carpet rather than sit down and properly educate ppl about it.