For much of his life, Michael Jackson has transcended race. But now, at a critical juncture in his life -- facing imprisonment if convicted of child molestation charges -- the race issue may prove to be his enemy. It has tainted public opinion about Jackson and continues to color the media coverage of his trial.
There is, of course, little tolerance for child molestation regardless of the race of the offender. Race, though, complicates such offenses when they occur across the color line, particularly given the history of black masculinity in American society -- a history rife with outright fear and frenzy about black male sexuality.
Against this history, Jackson's initial rise to fame is extraordinary. Jackson came to public consciousness as a member of the Jackson Five in the late 1960s, a time when blacks were demanding racial justice. That a group of five black males with woolly Afros could become teen heartthrobs for millions of American girls (and boys) of all races said a great deal about the changing dynamics of race relations in the United States.
When Jackson reemerged as a major pop star in the early 1980s with recordings like "Off the Wall" (1979) and "Thriller" (1982), he was so confident in his universal appeal that he could arrogantly claim that he was the "King of Pop."
Jackson clearly understood that part of his global appeal lay in his ability to mute the stereotypes associated with black male sexuality throughout American history. Michael Jackson was Peter Pan in the eyes of white America. This image of the asexual black male is possibly the reason why some parents were willing to let Jackson spend time with their children; he was the antithesis of the black male brute that lies submerged in the subconsciousness of white America.
Indeed, throughout much of his career, Jackson was an exemplar of the "good black" -- those such as Colin Powell, Michael Jordan and Condoleezza Rice who are set apart from "regular" black folk. This is not to say that Jackson was in denial about his "blackness." The kinds of violence that he has enacted upon his face -- the nose jobs and the apparent skin treatments -- suggest that not only was he aware that he was black, but that he probably possessed a hatred of his once racially specific physical features.
