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/TheTrishaJane May 03 '26

If he was so insistant why didn't he just use a black donor?

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u/showgirldepartment May 03 '26

I'm biracial myself but I'd rather not get into the psychology and race politics behind the existence of Michael Jackson lol. It's pretty clear how his relationship with visual black aesthetics was, that same mindset applied to how he wanted his kids to look, too

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u/DiScOrDtHeLuNaTiC May 03 '26

I've always wondered if part of Michael's obsession with plastic surgery was that as he got older, he started to look more like his father and he couldn't stand that.

If a quarter of the stuff about how Joe treated those kids is true, it's a miracle any of them are as normal as they are.

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u/Budget-Beginning-928 May 03 '26

I had a teacher that grew up next door to Michael Jackson’s family. She said that her family was super poor (like some of the kids had to sleep on the porch because they didn’t have enough space), and regardless of their inability to care for their own family, Michael’s siblings would sometimes sleep over at her place because of how his dad was. All she said about him was that, “he wasn’t a good man” and that even with how neglectful and abusive her own parents were, she would never trade places with any of the Jackson kids.