Michael Jackson was a global force, a musical genius whose electrifying performances made him the undisputed King of Pop. Yet, even as his star reached unimaginable heights, a growing mystery about his changing appearance sparked conversations and speculation worldwide, shaping a significant part of his public story.
Tonight on Our American Stories, we confront a powerful question many have asked for decades: why did Michael Jackson’s skin color change so dramatically? We’ll explore the medical truth, including the facts about vitiligo, the personal journey, and the endless speculation, bringing clarity to a chapter that continues to fascinate and challenge our understanding of this legendary artist.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
There was a story about you wanting to have a little white boy play you in a Pepsi commercial.
That is so stupid. That’s the most ridiculous, horrifying story I’ve ever heard. It’s crazy. I mean, why? Number one, it’s my face as a child in the commercial, me when I was little. Why would I want a white child to play me? I’m a Black American. I’m proud to be a Black American. I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am. I have a lot of pride, and who I am in dignity. That’s like, you want an Oriental person to play you as a child? Does that make sense? No?
Many scandals marred Michael Jackson’s personal life, overshadowing his otherwise remarkable musical career. One such scandal was the obvious change in his appearance, especially his skin color, which started from the mid-eighties to slowly but surely turn from dark to white.
So when did the color of your skin start to change?
Oh, boy, sometime after Thriller. I run afterward, Thriller by.
By the mid-nineties, when Jackson released his album HIStory in 1995, it was more than obvious to even his most dedicated fans that the man of Thriller from 1982 looked nothing like the man who had recently married Elvis Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie. By this time, Michael Jackson was milky white, a skin color transition that started almost a decade earlier, was more or less complete. So, what happened, don’t bet? According to his family and Jackson himself, the King of Pop had vitiligo, a condition that causes the pigmentation of parts of the skin, which usually results in white spots on the patient’s body.
Okay, number one, this is the situation. I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin is something that I cannot help, okay. But when people make up stories that I don’t want to be who I am, it hurts me. It’s a problem for me, okay. I care control.
It’s. These are even more noticeable if the person has a dark complexion, as in Jackson’s case. The one in 250 or so people who have this condition typically first starts seeing signs of it beginning between ten and thirty years old. Approximately 30% of the people who have it also have it run in their family, which is true of Jackson.
It’s in my family, my father said, is on his side. I can’t control that. I don’t understand. I mean, it makes me very sad. I don’t want to go into my medical history because that’s something that’s private, but that’s the situation here.
In addition to this skin disorder, Jackson also reportedly suffered from systemic lupus erythematosus, which, besides potentially being a very serious condition, can also cause loss of skin pigmentation. When the controversy about his changing skin color hitted, Zenith, Jackson spoke openly about his vitiligo for the first time in an interview he gave to Oprah in 1993. He said, among other things, but.
What about all the millions of people? Let’s reverse it, okay? What about all the millions of people who sit out in the sun to become darker, to become other than what they are? Nobody says nothing about that.
In the days after, at Jackson’s request, condition was publicly confirmed by his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, who also stated Jackson was first diagnosed with the condition in 1984. It was also confirmed that he had lupus erythematosus, then that it was in remission. Conspiracy theorists proposed that there was much more to it than this, that in fact, Jackson had no such disease, and that he instead systemically bleached his skin using Benaquin cream and other medical cocktails in his quest to look like a White person.
Are you bleaching your skin, and here is your skin lighter because you don’t like being Black? Okay?
Number one: There, as I know of, there is no such thing as skin bleaching. I have never seen it.
The obvious and extensive cosmetic surgeries he had on his eyebrows, eyelashes, lips, and nose only served to enforce the theory that he was simply purposefully tweaking his appearance even more by bleaching his skin. So, is there any truth to this? Dr. Christopher Rodgers, dead medical examiner at the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office and the man who conducted Michael Jackson’s autopsy, chimed in on this. After performing the autopsy on Jackson, Dr. Rogers confirms that Jackson indeed suffered from vitiligo, most notably with patches around his face, chest, abdomen, and arms. So, did he also bleach his skin? According to dermatologist Dr. Hannish Babu, Jackson did. This is sometimes a treatment used for those with vitiligo. When these white patches first started appearing, you can see from certain of Jackson’s concert footage that he was trying to mask them with makeup matching his original skin color.
I just want to get this straight. You are not taking anything to change the color of your skin. God, no. You did not purpose.
Trying to control it, and using makeup. Who evens it out? Because it makes blotches on the skin, and I have to even.
Out my skin. Once the patches became too numerous to easily hide with makeup, and he supposedly became tired of the extensive time needed to apply the makeup every day. He switched strategies and began the process of bleaching his skin, supposedly under the care of his dermatologist and using 20% monobezeal effor of hydroquinone Benaquin cream. Much later, in June of 2009, after his death, tubes of Benaquin and hydroquinone were found in Jackson’s home. As Dr. David’s saucer said, some patients with vitiligo get to the point where it makes more sense to remove the brown bits because so much of the skin is pale. Besides giving him a white complexion, this also results in him being prone to sunburns, which is why in later years he often kept himself nearly completely covered when outside in the sun. In the end, only Jackson knew his true motivation for ultimately choosing to bleach his skin, whether as a treatment for his vitiligo to even out his skin color as reported, or as the conspiracy theorists claim to further change his appearance to more of a Caucasian look, though one would think the latter would be an odd move for the co-author of the line with Bill Botrel: ‘It doesn’t massa if you’re Black or White.’
Why is that so important? That’s not important to me. I’m a great fan of art. I love Michelangelo. If I had a chance to talk to him or read about him, I would want to know about what inspired him to become who he is, the anatomy of his craftsmanship, not about who he went out with last night or why he decided to sit out in the sun so long. What’s wrong with—I mean, that’s what’s important to.
Me. The story of Michael Jackson’s skin color here on Our American Stories. plea habib here, and I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily again. Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories coming.
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