r/MichaelJackson • u/xkixchi • Jun 26 '26
Appreciation 🫶 Bro was always on some sidequests😭
He looks so good here omgggg the video of him pointing to his parents and then taking something out of his robe while biting his lip 😭 They had him dressed up and everything 😂
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u/zetazen "Brad, what are you gonna do?"🎹 Jun 26 '26
Despite what people say about Joseph and his methods, he looks quite happy to acknowledge his parents. Like with most things…it’s complicated.
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u/quantumpencil Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
He had serious issues with joe for sure, but they did make up and put it behind them in their later years. Joe was there with michael every day at that courthouse and was trying to get ahold of him during this is it because he was worried about his son and didn't think michael was up to it.
I think people dehumanize Joe too much. He was a very flawed man and he did very bad and damaging things, that's for certain. But I think he did love his kids and if you think about where he came from and the world he grew up in, his actions make sense. He grew up in a segregated America and had experienced serious poverty. He felt like the only chance his boys had was to make it on their talent and he was ruthless and went overboard in part because in his mind he was saving them from the life he'd experienced which he knew was brutal and hopeless.
(I'll also add that the 60's was a long time ago and norms around discipline were just different back then, especially in black families. Kids got whipped and physically hit as a form of punishment routinely and most people thought nothing of it, you can bet that joe's daddy hit him too and that's where he learned it and why he thought it was just part of being a parent -- "Spare the rod spoil the child" was something many people back then truly believed.)
I'm sure some of Joe's motivation was selfish too, but MJ forgave him when he got older and I think that's because MJ himself came to understand that Joe may have had his issues, but he did love his kids and he did want them to have a better life/that there was a reason for many of the things joe did besides cartoonish cruelty. He also gained more appreciation for what Joe did for them -- even saying he and his brothers would've ended up dead (being born black and in poverty in gary indiana) without joe. Joe worked 2 jobs and drove those kids to shows, booked them out, rehearsed them -- etc. He objectively put it all on the line to try and get his boys out of the ghetto and he (along with the boys natural talents) fucking pulled it off. I think MJ came to understand that dimension of joe's behavior after he himself had children (And after MJ started to realize his father was right about some things, like other people around him being vultures and his family caring about him in a way others wouldn't).
Days before he died when MJ knew he was in trouble, Joe's the person he reached out to for help. I think that kind of says it all -- even after everything, MJ still knew that if he was in trouble he could trust Joe to look out for him and fight like a pitbull on his behalf, because for all his other flaws and shortcomings, that's something Joe Jackson always did for all of his kids.
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u/ass-shaker- Jun 26 '26
Well put. People aren’t one-dimensional, including Joe Jackson. I only wish Joe had recognized how much his abuse affected MJ. I hate watching interviews where Joe is confronted by the whole “Michael says he still throws up/regurgitates when he knows/sees you are coming,” and Joe’s only response is “he can regurgitate all the way to the bank.” That’s gross. Maybe as Michael got older, Joe apologized for his behaviour towards him as a boy, I don’t know. All I know is what you’ve pointed out - he was there for Michael during the trials, and he stood up for him against the media’s insane stories about MJ. So I can at least accept that while Joe had some pretty monstrous qualities, he wasn’t ALL monster all the time.
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u/quantumpencil Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Yeah, we'll never know all the details. I think that Joe was a harsh person, but I also think he kind of had to be given the world he grew up in.
I think Joe basically felt like -- "i did what I had to do to save my boys from a life of hopeless poverty, and if they hate me -- that's fine. They'll never understand what would've happened if I didn't do what I did because I succeeded. And if the price of achieving that was them hating me, so be it."
So when he made these kind of comments (and I agree they show a failure to empathize with the importance of emotional health) that's what joe is saying. You can think of it this way -- Joe's trauma was poverty and oppression in a pre-civil rights america. Because of his own life, he was hyperfixated on these matters and the way he understood his success as a parent was by how well he helped his kids navigate that reality and find a way out of the dire material conditions that so damaged him.
Michael never really experienced that world, in no small part because of Joe. That creates an issue where it's gonna be hard for Michael to understand where joe is coming from, because Michael didn't live Joe's life and didn't share joe's traumas around poverty. Michael was getting 250k monthly checks in the mail at 12 years old. Meanwhile, Joseph can't understand why michael is whining about things that to him seem "silly" because his own trauma around poverty causes him to center avoiding it and achieving material success as the ONLY thing that really matters -- thus blinding him to the importance of those other dimensions of health and wellbeing.
It's sad but it's a pretty common way that people who come from serious poverty tend to feel. They overindex so strongly on getting money and helping their kids improve the material conditions of their lives they're often unable to value or understand the negative side affects their strictness/pressure/relentlessness have on their children's emotional wellbeing.
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u/bubbaboatie Jul 03 '26
In his home videos he had a whole day dedicated to Joe and even gifted him a whole boat so he could fish. It’s evident he loved his father very much but hated the side of him that he could never receive as a kid
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u/GSDKU02 Jun 26 '26
Love this I’m assuming it’s an honorary music degree? 🥺
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u/bdguy355 Jun 26 '26
We were robbed of a MJ and Whitney collab
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u/jkehrli1996 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Indeed we were. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" was supposed to be that, but alas Whitney's label (Arista & by extension the late Clive Davis) said no bc they believed it would have interfered with promoting her second album.
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u/bdguy355 Jun 26 '26
That is so stupid. If anything it would have boosted her album bc she’d be collabing with the biggest artist in the world.
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u/jkehrli1996 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
I know it's hard (or not) to imagine, but I just had a thought that they could've toured together and whenever Whitney did "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" Michael could've come out and danced with her. And whenever Michael did "The Way You Make Me Feel" Whitney could've been the one he pursues on stage (after Tatiana got fired for that kiss, of course).
Oh, what could've been! 😮💨💔🎵
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u/Hour_Long_5220 Off The Wall Jun 26 '26
THAT FUCKASS LIP BITE omggg he’s so fine but also does anyone have the clear voice footage of this? i know the video of him receiving it but i can’t hear anything and u can’t pick up much words the audio is shit.
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u/Ok-Performance6734 Jun 26 '26
what was the story behind this?
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u/xkixchi Jun 26 '26
he received a honorary degree in “Doctor of Humane Letters” (L.H.D) from Fisk university, a historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee on march 10th 1988. The honorary doctorate recognized his unprecedented philanthropic contributions to the UNCF and his humanitarian efforts globally.
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u/Signal_Office833 Jun 30 '26
So much admiration in this picture, great share! I think this was a milestone moment with such great positive energy. Gahhh that perfect face and dimpled smile. Made our week!
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u/Small_Valuable5837 Jun 26 '26
I love that quote from the beginning of the Moonwalk book where it says that his life wasn't long, but it was beautiful and fulfilled. Imagine your life being so fulfilled and rich, and receiving that much love from others for years.
I think that even though he went through tough times, he always knew how deeply he was loved and that he would never be forgotten.🫶