Michael Jackson’s soul absorbed every derogatory black, dark complexioned, kinky-hair and big-nose joke that are used to ridicule African Americans physical features. Michael Jackson's white face and European features were the personification of self-hatred longing for acceptance in mainstream society.

Please don’t make fun of Michael Jackson in my presence because I feel his pain. He is the phantom of what many blacks would look like if they had the resources to change their physical appearance to the reality of their nightmares of low self-esteem.

Michael Jackson became Michael Jackson the entertainer before he became a black man. His fans, the public, owned him before he had the opportunity to define himself. As a vulnerable child star, his perception of self was molded by the beliefs and opinions of others, both positive and negative. When one feels that the world owns them, then one feels that they owe the world. Michael Jackson didn’t know when to stop giving of himself.

If the average person’s classmates had made fun of their nose and skin color this would be daunting for most of us; yet the average person places this type of teasing in perspective and prevails without making major changes to their appearance or self-esteem. But if the world quietly hissed this same derogatory theme to you before you had the spiritual and mental fortitude to decipher its credibility, you’d be more receptive to its venom. Michael Jackson’s fame and money did not spare him from the task of learning to love and accept him-self from the inside out. His fame and money just gave him less resilience and nowhere to hide.

I know what it’s like to feel invisible, I am just glad that I don’t have to answer to the world. I still wonder why there are no African-American female sex-symbols with mainstream appeal. Society dissects the physical beauty of black women. I still wonder why braids became sexy on Bo Derek in the movie Ten, but some black women were required to take legal action to be allowed to wear them to their jobs. White “movie stars” have injections to have fuller lips, but full lips on African Americans are called “soup coolers” or simply “big lips.”

Having round, full buttocks didn’t become front page news until it was on Jennifer Lopez, who is close enough to European features although she is Latino, but frowned upon and ignored by mainstream society and the broadcast media as the natural physique of most black women. Rap performer Lil’ Kim had blonde hair and blue eyes in the height of her fame because I believe that she wanted to be noticed and validated as a sex symbol. Society has taught her that the blonde bombshell does not sell in shades of black.
I believe that Michael Jackson had cosmetic surgery so that his fans would love all of him, not just his dancing and singing. He wanted to be perfect. I don’t think that Michael Jackson felt that being “black” would position him as King of Pop.

Michael Jackson’s mesmerizing performances was a reminder that true beauty resonates from the soul, I only wish he knew how much his fans loved and appreciated him before he died.

So please don’t laugh at Michael Jackson’s physical appearance. He did not do this to himself, we did it to him. He gave us his all, he gave us his best.