MJ 1987 letter about racism unearthed

Whew!!!
This is a mess and it won’t go over well.

First, I doubt he had anyone remove it from NL. If the letter is authentic then someone stole it likely from his storage.

I get what what he’s saying and it could’ve been fleshed out much better.
The part about black people being ugly and the little white lies won’t go over well. I get what he meant but it’s still problematic.

Really? I totally didn't get that from it. I actually think this letter shows how "woke" MJ was 33 years before it was fashionable and how ahead of his time he was.

Dude was fighting systemic racism in the industry since he was 10 years old. The media and his detractors repeatedly use his vitiligo and surgery as a means to belittle his accomplishments as a black artist.

Looking at the comments on this article, it's beyond gross that in 2020, people are denying MJs racial identity because he had a fucking skin disorder.

Yes, I agree with you. If it's real (and that's a big IF to me) I don't see how it's problematic. Especially at this age when people talk about this kind of systemic racism all the time. It will only bother the racist core audience of tabloids like The Sun. The only problematic part is the "plus a lot of blacks have been ugly" which is an addition in red and I'm not at all convinced the red additions are authentic even if the rest is (and I'm not convinced about the rest either).

Most of the contents of the letter seem innocuous except the comment about lots of “blacks” being “ugly” to “look at”. MJ probably meant that in the context of racism in the industry at the time - not that he deemed any black people ugly but that they had to work harder to stand out in every regard, including looks, which was true (and may even be true today). Many people who read that are not going to read between the lines, though. They’re going to take it as an indication MJ lamented his race and wanted to be “white”...    MJ could have also meant “ugly to look at” regardless of race (as in beauty is very subjective irrespective of ethnicity). Decontextualized, it doesn’t look good. But these are his own private thoughts where only he knew what he meant. But it (the comment in question) is absolutely inconsistent with just about every public comment MJ has ever made about black people.

He’s always expressly stated he’s proud to be black, and Remember The Time (the music video) is filled to the utmost with black people, along with both versions of They Don’t Care About Us (actions speak louder than words). MJ wanted to make a movie about Africans ruling Egypt for crying out loud! And in this interview, around 20:35, MJ states the “darker skinned they are”, “the more beautiful”, or something to that effect... how could he think lots of black people are ugly? This was all in an age well before virtue signaling. He obviously didn’t think ill of his own race in any regard whatsoever. What he thought of his own looks is another matter, completely independent of his own race, vitiligo and all, etc. 

Given that the source of this letter is two UK tabloids thus far - the Mirror and the Sun - and knowing how little the UK press cares for MJ - I’d take it with a grain of salt. MJ’s comments about being the “king” “forever”, and his “discontent” towards Bruce Springsteen, the Beatles, Elvis, etc, come across as a bit less humble than the MJ better known. It’s possible he was just getting carried away in a singular letter. But you couldn’t really undermine or demean the cultural impact the Beatles and even Elvis had upon the music industry despite not being wholly original (for an example, Elvis not really writing his own material and more or less taking music which was originally written by black artists such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, etc, and popularizing it). And make “these little white kids love me” has inappropriate undertones to it in the wrong context. As to MJ “trusting his friends” more than his “family”... MJ unequivocally placed great trust in his mother and his nephews.

I’m also quite skeptical of the authenticity of this letter. It could be written by Michael Jacobshagen for all we know. Michael Jackson has long since passed so anything goes, including forging letters (with no repercussions). Michael Jackson’s birthday is coming up so what a convenient time for this “unearthed” letter to pop up, a year and a half after the LN fiasco. And yes, MJ wasn’t present at Neverland during the 2003 raid. Just as he wasn’t present at Neverland during the 1993 raid. Both raids were unannounced and unexpected. So that part of the article is fabricated. Don’t be surprised to find out the letter, as a whole, is also fabricated. I can’t say for sure yet but I wouldn’t be taken aback to find out this is another blatant attempt to hijack an annual commemorative date for MJ.

It is true that Michael's writing was a bit scatterbrained, although the "make these little white kids love me" reeks of something a hater would come up with. No doubt people are already twisting that statement and everything else written here into anything from "He was a pedo! He admitted to wanting to groom kids!" to "See, he hated being black!" or even "He hates white people! See, black people can be racist too!".

It's also just shitty how they pull this crap every year around his birthday and death day. Can we just have some peace and quiet around those days for one fucking year?!?! And while we're at it, can The Sun fly into the actual sun and die already?

Reading about this on mjjc. Lots of red flags brought up. The red writing isnt from the same hand as the black when compairing the same words.

Certain comments which seem thrown in to incite. The taking it before the raid is obvious B.S as respect says. And is prob just thrown in to make the reader go humm what else was taken and hidden. Also implies it was taken because what was said was wrong and needed to be hidden. It pushes the reader a certain way.

Imo the writing looks like its trying to be mj but isnt. I dont believe anything like this unless theres proof as we have seen too many fakes over the years.

I think it's real, I just think MJ fans are a naturally overly-suspicious bunch.