Tate Article

In the Tate article, Tate touches on the subject of Michael Jackson's physical transformations and eludes to the notion of Jackson being a racial sell out and in a way his argument makes sense. We all know Jackson worked with white artists such as Paul McCartney and Eddie Van Halen to try and bridge the gap between music and race and then in his later life undoes all of this by having his skin lightened and multiple nose jobs. Jackson then goes on to sing about how it doesn't matter if your black or white in the song "Black or White." To me, it seems that Jackson was sendng mixed messages. How can you sing about how it shouldn't matter what color your skin is and then get your skin color changed? Don't get me wrong, I think Michael Jackson was a great performer and singer and is undoubtingly the king of pop, but I think he should have stuck to his roots and shouldn't have tried to conform to what the people/auidience wanted him to look and act like. I also found the section in Tate's article where he talks about minstrelsy interesting. It got me thinking how Jackson's physical transformation is kind of like the reverse of black face minstrelsy.