Michael Jackson let himself be used

The Boston Herald

There's a lot that's weird about Michael Jackson. But he's been endearingly weird. In 1978, when he made his film debut as the Scarecrow in "The Wiz," he actually had to be coaxed into removing his costume and makeup every day. He has always loved fantasy, has always preferred being someone else to being himself. He admits that he talks to mannequins and that in his mansion, they have their own room.

"I feel strange around everyday people," he's said. "When I'm not on stage I feel quiet and shy."

But the public has always loved this about him. Here is this incredibly talented young man who is so openly vulnerable. He told the whole world he doesn't want to grow up; he's said he longs to be Peter Pan. He so adored Disneyland and DisneyWorld that he recreated the Pirates of the Caribbean in the entry hall of his house.

He surrounds himself with robots that talk and sing, and animals, not just dogs and cats, but llamas and snakes. "I think my pets are sweet," Jackson said. "I like to look inside their world and watch them move."

This uniqueness has consistently spilled into his music. "Thriller," "Billy Jean" and "Beat It" are all proof of his vision and his abilities.

So what happened with "Black or White," Jackson's new video which debuted on Fox TV Thursday night? Did a stand-in for Jackson put this 11-minute film together?

It started off OK, if unoriginally, with a father telling a child to lower the music and the child zapping the father into some horrendous sound-drenched nightmare. (This was done a few years ago by Twisted Sister.)

The video then continued along pleasantly enough with a tune reminiscent of "Hurt So Good," but with a better message: "Makes no difference if you're black or white," dramatically reinforced by images which culminated with a montage of people, changing from male to female to black to white. Indeed, the effect was stylistically and thematically perfect. The video should have ended here.

But it didn't. In a second half that wasn't related to the beginning at all, a panther stalked across a surreal night turning, as it moved, into Michael Jackson. Dirt blew up the street, while Jackson did this Edward Scissorhands/Bo Jangles type dance. Next he went on a rampage, smashing car and store windows, all the while miming masturbation.

The video concluded with Jackson tearing off his clothes, falling into a puddle and screaming. A neon motel sign burned and Jackson turned into a panther again.

If the point of all this screaming and violence is that man is an animal when he does these things - and this is the only explanation I can come up with - it did not work.

Michael Jackson is perceived as an innocent. Seeing him take pleasure in destruction was like watching Peter Pan turn into Peeping Tom. How could the video's director John Landis have allowed this? How could Michael Jackson have allowed himself to be used like this?

Less than 24 hours after the video aired, Jackson apologized to the public and cut out the offensive sequence. Tonight it will air at 8:30 on Channel 25 in its revised form.

I don't doubt for a minute that Jackson saw in the original "Black or White" a message that wasn't there, like the voices of mannequins that only he can hear. His managers and his director should have told him the piece didn't work. When the public did, he listened.