Demonizing Joe Jackson
Michael Jackson got his final revenge on his alleged, tyrannical, abusive, and unfeeling father, Joe. He didn't leave him a red cent in his will. That of course is the party line about Joe Jackson. Few fathers have ever been more reviled. Joe was slammed hard for laughing and joking with Reverend Jesse Jackson outside the family compound a day after Jackson's death. He was slammed even harder when he turned up at the BET Awards allegedly shopping a record deal while uttering a few standard, impersonal platitudes about Jackson. And then the ultimate indignity, Michael allegedly blanking him out of his purported will.
With Joe, it was never the proverbial case of you love him or hate him. It was just simply hate. The line was seemingly set by Jackson in his autobiography in 1988. He lightly hinted at regrets over skipping a normal childhood, the forced march into child stardom, and of course the beatings. He minced no words in saying that he wanted to get back at Joe for the abuse.
But Jackson also admitted that his most vivid memory was of rehearsals, countless hours, spent in the studio to get the notes and the dance steps right. Joe's ferocious push to harness his son's talent and whip them into a world class act wasn't just to satisfy a father's obsessive ego, or to snatch vicarious thrills through his children, or because of dollar signs dancing in his eyes. Joe, and so many other hard case black fathers of that time, saw entertainment and the stage as their son's ticket out of the ghetto; a sure fire escape for potentially at risk young black boys from poverty, racism, and the perils of the streets.
In an age when parenting roles were far more rigid and sharply defined, Joe's idea of being a loving, caring and responsible father was to bring home the paycheck, expect his dinner to be waiting on the table, and to be stern, tough, and no nonsense with their children, especially their sons. Joe's fierce drive paid big dividends with the Jackson's. The fame, dollars, and adulation rolled in. The boys did not do drugs, join gangs, commit any crimes, and could not be accused of educational or professional underachievement.
Joe hit the jackpot with Michael. The fierce discipline, focus, work ethic, and business and marketing savvy that Joe drilled into Michael laid the foundation for Michael's transformation from a child R&B star into a music immortal.
Now that Michael's gone none of this has meant much. Joe is not just the child beating, uncaring, gold digging father, but fingers point hard at him for helping to kill Michael; that he is as much the reason for Michael's death as if he had jabbed a drug drenched needle into his heart.
In the days to come, Joe will continue to be the bad guy, the demon, the one who drove Michael to an untimely grave. The flip side of the coin is that Michael would not have been the Michael that the world knew and for the most part loved, if not for the demons that Joe created and exorcised. That's the Joe Jackson who won't get any props.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, "The Hutchinson Report" can be heard weekly in Los Angeles Fridays on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and live streamed nationally on ktym.com
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PLEEZ Michael Jackson was a grown man, and he knew he needed psychological help, he just chose not to get any. Its not every parents fault how their children turn out! And I agree with one poster who said that Michael's behavior did not get into the bizaare stage UNTIL he cut ties with his family. Next thing you know he is introduced to Hollywood and all its trappings. To fit in with his "new friends" he started to change his appearance so that he would be more acceptable to them. Obviously, this is what he thought he had to do, this is the REAL TRAGEDY - white society making you hate yourself. When he got into trouble, all those Hollywood friends just disappeared. I think later that he started to realize the mistakes he made in being away from the family fold and his father was at those trials. I believe that when he finally learned and woke up from the nightmare and started to make amends, then his work on this earth was done. This is why Liz Taylor and all the rest of those so-called fake friends stayed away from that memorial, they felt guilty, they knew what they had helped destroy and could not face his family. The plastic surgery and his need to be accepted had nothing to do with Joe Jackson and everything to to with the world in which he chose to live.
Mr. Hutchinson I've been a loyal reader of your columns and books, however, you really missed the boat on this one. So to speak. As a black mental health professional; this unusually harsh corporeal punishment that is rampant in so many of our communities should not be honored in any way.
Michael with his talent; may have attained star status without all the tyrannical and abusive behavior
displayed by his father. Discipline and sternness is not what Michael or his other siblings got from Joe and to say that he wouldn't have reached the global acclaim he garnered without it ...is certainly
disingenuous to say the least. My goodness, the legacy of the whip and chain has made the unusual and severe punishment doled out to black children of my generation (baby boomers) preceding and successive ones a shameful and unnecessary one. What is troubling to us (public) is the absence of love/grief. Again, he was using Michael and at this point his memory as the ultimate exploitation. Michael has indicated in his will...enough Joe and I concur. Shame on you Mr. Hutchinson!!!
Mr Hutchinson, let me remind you of that new testament verse:For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Matthew 16: 26 . Micheal had it all except the thing that most matters; love for himself. A love that begins with a loving parent.
Joe was not typical of a "Black father" but was the text book version of a STAGE PARENT( everyone knows that Joe himself was once part of a band that tried to be successful).Those parents who have given up on their own dreams because of lack of fait hor oppotunity, so they thrust their abandoned dreams on their children.
They at once push their children to success while stimultaneously belittle them and put them down. They want their children to be famous but at the same time they are deeply jealous of them. The conflicting message given by such parents wind up making them successfully and destroying them toward the end. I'd love to type more--but think about this please.
Part 1 of 3
Mr Hutchinson... You're article disturbs me on so many levels. It's clear you never received abuse at the hands of your parents or you would have discussed it as a point of reference for your "insights" into Michael Jackson's psyche. And its also clear you align yourself with this sado-masochistic excuse for a man named Joe Jackson. Do you find it acceptable to beat... BEAT... your own children to get them to be the most popular artist/ athlete/ actor the world has ever seen?
The outcome of Michael Jacksons career does not make the process he endured to get there acceptable. I grieved hearing of Michael Jackson's death and couldn't help but wonder why. Was it because he was the sound of my generation and I couldn't help but hope to hear more music come from his immeasurably talented mind? Yes... but it was mostly because Michael Jackson didn't outlive that pathetic "father" that he had.
Michael Jackson never got to have that moment of peace... free from the devil that haunted him his entire life, that left him scarred so badly internally that he needed to change himself externally to find the perfection he longed for so that his daddy would finally love him. Michael Jackson DESERVED to outlive his Father. I grieved because the vision I had of a healthy happy smiling Michael Jackson would never come to be... no amount of money or celebrity ever got him free from that pain.
Part 2 of 3
There are many star athletes and musicians and actors whose parents did not have to resort to violence, torture, and abuse to pull the best out of their children. And that crosses all color and creed boundaries... so to give Joe Jackson the excuse of being "like so many other hard case black fathers of that time" incenses me. To pull a phrase from Michael: "It dont matter if youre black or white"! Many hard case white Fathers chose that same tactical line... beat your children to get what you want. And the end result for all of us black or white children is a soul and heart that is hurting and searching to love and to be loved.
In the end you praise that method for developing children who are successful and prominent entertainers. Have you seen where those Jackson children are today??? Bagging groceries. Fixing cars in a friends garage. Financial ruin and living at home or declaring bankruptcy. Not speaking with each other. One brother married another brothers ex-wife. They've suffered through plastic surgery after plastic surgery in pursuit of the unattainable perfection their father insisted on. They cant sleep with the lights off. HOW DO YOU MEASURE THE SUCCESS OF JOE JACKSON? You diminish all children who have suffered under the hands of their abusers by justifying the abuse. Beat me... I might become really successful! Wonderful logic, Mr Hutchinson!
Part 3 of 3
Joe Jacksons interview at the BET awards was DEPLORABLE... a shameless plug bringing in speakers, lawyers, and a business partner trying to make a buck two days after his own sons death. There was no "allegedly shopping a record deal"! NO allegedly. He did it on air. And it disgusted all who watched. I cringed... and then got angry that the interviewers gave him a voice!
And for those of you who say that Michael Jackson didn't rise above the abuse as so many do... the truth is that even those of us who have figured out better coping mechanisms than Michael Jackson ever figured out, we all have that pain and insecurity lurking underneath, hiding deep in our souls. Some of us just disguise it better and have the privilege of not having our weak moments recorded for all the world to see.
I don't have the answers to all of Michael Jacksons demons... I don't know what happened behind closed doors in his home. I do know the transcripts of his court cases and that he was cleared of all wrong doing and that for lack of a childhood he has some eccentricities the rest of us don't find "normal" (I hate that word). I DO NOT want to make Michael Jackson out to be a saint. But I'll be damned if you, Mr Hutchinson, are going to attempt to make Mr Joe Jackson into a saint either!
Excellent post set. I agree.
Susienak,
By your own admission, you "don't know what happened behind closed doors in his [Michael's] home." Well, then, how can your trash Joe Jackson? That statement right there negates your entire post.
It negates nothing. Michael AND Joe Jackson have both acknowledged the abuse Joe Jackson delivered. That is how all of us have come to "trash" Joe Jackson. Have you not seen Joe Jacksons BBC interview years ago? Maybe you should. For me to discuss not knowing what happened in Michaels home as an adult behind closed doors negates nothing regarding his acknowledged childhood abuse at the hands of his father.
We all would have survived without the public Michael Jackson that the world knew and loved. I would gladly have traded all that in order for Michael to have lived a happier, more normal life; to have had a father who didn't exploit and abuse him; and to have avoided all the mental anguish that affected him throughout his far too brief life. That said, Michael Jackson's talent came from God or nature or whatever you might believe in. It didn't come from Joe Jackson. I'm confident Michael would have achieved greatness without the physical and mental abuse he endured and without all the leeches who attached themselves to his star for decades.
Oh. My. God. I heard Michael's descriptions of Joe's abuse to Martin Bashir again today on the radio. It made my blood run cold, and goes a long way to explaining Michael Jackson's tragic adulthood and ultimate end.
Someone should point out to Mr. Hutchinson that *white* slave owners *also* got extra work out of people through beatings, degradation, humiliation, rapes, and other torments. That slavery is a horrible evil is obvious, except, apparently, when a *black* man makes slaves of his own children. Then, I guess, he's another Martin Luther King.
I've tried hard to avoid any comment on the death of Mike Jackson. My thoughts: Why all the ink and angsts? After all this tragic human being was just a singer of songs, an entertainer. And although he is reported to have been fairly genorous and charitable, all he left as a legacy to the worlds are some songs and entertaining video's. Unlike the example we isee in Oprah who at least will have left the institution of a school when she meets her ultimate demise, what of any enduring real impact has Mike Jackson left to the world. This all so much celebrity worship. A pathetic man who couldn't figure out for himself that sleeping with children not his own was at the very least indiscrete. A self-loathing man that disfigured himself in search for some fanstasy of ill-percieved beauty. In the end...well even this is just so much wasted (virtual) ink.
"To God do we all belong and to God shall we all return."
"And although he is reported to have been fairly genorous and charitable, all he left as a legacy to the worlds are some songs and entertaining video's"
You can't be serious. Michael is in the Guiness Book of World Records for the tens of millions of dollars he donated to numerous charities. His legacy cannot be measured and will play out for generations to come. Perhaps his donation to a charity helped pay for the treatment of a child with leukemia, who instead of perishing from the disease, will grow up and find a cure for cancer or figure out how to bring about that elusive goal of world peace. The money raised by "We Are the World" saved countless Africans who otherwise would have starved to death. He raised three children who, by all accounts, are smart and polite; who knows what they will accomplish in their lifetimes?
Michael had a way of bringing the citizens of the earth - regardless of nationality, religion or race -- together in spirit, hope and joy. He made people believe in magic and the healing power of love. What could be better than that?
I am glad that you wrote this article. I too was thinking the exact same thing. It’s all too easy to blame someone else for your troubles. The fact is, Michael was a grown man, who made his own decisions. I can understand him having some issues because he grew up in a strict household as most of have. If he saw fit to surround himself with doctors who could provide him with drugs, why couldn’t he seek mental therapy? I can't equate the way Joe raised his kids with Michael’s questionable relationship with young white boys. Also, it wasn't until he had long moved out from the influence of his father and in the company of other questionable folks did he start on his path of self-hate. Many people loved him just the way he was. Furthermore none of us know how Joe or Katherine is really coping. All I'm, saying is that there comes a time when you have to have accountability for your own actions. Michael was deeply troubled and there is more to his problems than having a domineering father. Someone had posted that Michael would have been successful without his father. I disagree. Joe had the vision and the connections. True, Michael had the talent but without guidance, who knows what would have become of him. We don't have to like or love Joe Jackson, but all the same, we cannot place the blame squarely on his shoulders.
This might well be one of the sicker things I have read on huff po.
there is no justification for child abuse. infact, it's against the law.
The guy is lucky no one turned him in to cps at that time.
So the way to get your kids out of the ghetto was to beat them? Please. that's just a sick , worn out excuse for people who are angry about their own circumstances and take it out on their kids.
Other folks got their kids out without beating them . Trust me.
I have a problem with you calling it child abuse. If Joe was the monster that he is protrayed to be, don't you think his ADULT children would have written him off and had no contact with him? Why was he at family gatherings & reunions? Who was standing next to Michael when he was going through his second trial? His father. If Michael hated him so much, do you honestly think he would have him there? No because Michael did love his father. he just didn't understand why his father is the way he is. There is a saying that you can choose your friends, but not your family.
We do not know the relationship the Jacksons have established or restablished as adults with their parents. Everyone is speculating and pointing fingers. It's obvious that that they have come to some truce so that they can move on.
You are sadly misinformed - his father didn't come to his trial, it was his MOTHER who came to his trial, and his SISTERS.
You would have more credibility if you had your facts in order.
He doesn't need any props.
Michael also could not forgive Joe for the affair he had which he told the family about.
If anyone thinks Michael got all or most of what he has from Joe - consider that at age 6 he was made the lead singer, at age 8 he was the key to the J5 act. HELLO! See him sing at age 10-11 - this talent is not anything beaten or trained into him by his father. No one could "get that good" by that age from someone else's doing.
HE SIMPLY HAD IT ON HIS OWN.
We all know the double-sided cr*p about abusive people. It does not excuse the behavior in ANY WAY.
There are likely enabling patterns that were set also - Joe the abuser would have had an enabling wife to some extent (otherwise she'd have left, took the kids) and likely some of the older kids, as by the time J5 hit it big Jackie was like 21 or so. The older ones would have enabled (though victims themselves) this family pattern to continue.
Michael is brilliant. Talent will out. These people - those with extraordinary gifts - do find a way to achieve on their own. Michael is the one we are giving props - FOREVER.
It's been hours since I first read this and I still can't believe it.
Mr Hutchinson if you'd been made to dance and sing for 12 hours a day to practice and beat by your father what would *your* most vivid memories be? Don't you think it's sad that there's no "I remember that time on my birthday". Jesus H.
They were jehova's witnesses. They don't celebrate birthdays or holidays.
Thank you for this article. It is instructive to observe how rationalization works. So...without his father's abusive treatment, Michael Jackson would have been No One, gotten No Where. What a lot of tosh.
It should not be overlooked that Joe Jackson has and always will be about Joe Jackson. Yes, he 'guided' his children towards success but at the same time failure as ALL of them lived and/or are living very tragic existences. At NO TIME have I EVER heard Joe express his LOVE for his children. His key phrase is I am PROUD which does not necessarily equate to adulation or love which ALL CHILDREN require to be mentally and spiritually HEALTHY. Joe unleashed upon society a house full of troubled souls.
Tito, Jermaine, Jackie, Marlon and Randy are ALL struggling financially mainly due to the misguided and heartless parental discretions of their father. They are BROKE and most still feeding off their parents because of infidelities, bad business decisions, multiple marriages and spending extravagances. The troubles of the sons trickled down to the daughters and Michael who were expected (under the guise of 'family') to continaully rescue them financially from themselves.
The parents (Joe & Katherine) after being GIVEN a home for life instead of enjoying such they squandered the money (pur the house in hock) and are now living exclusively on monies received from Mike / Janet. The family is TOTALLY dysfunctional and it all begins / ends with Joe. Yes Joe's stern hand definitely made Michael who he was - a TROUBLED SOUL.
I hear your point about him going overboard in the parenting dept. But they were grown when they made the decision to over spend, fornicate with nimerous women and invest in crappy projects. When are they going to be held responsible for their own individual actions?
Furthermore, none of them have completely written Joe out of their loves, so at some point they must have come to some sort of reconcilliation. They all stood by Michael during his trials and Joe was right there next to him. I di believe that joes loves his kids and Michael loved him back but Joe doesn't know how to show it.
People also forget that they grew up as Jehova's Witnesses and that influenced how they grew up. I'm sure Joe will go to his grave thinking "what if I had done things this way..." Fact of the matter is, he & Katherine raised a bunch of talented, well respected, beautiful,bright children who each is in charge of their own destiny.
Many abused people do not write their abusers out of their lives. Residual fear and a deeply ingrained, if perverted, sense of obligation to them accomplish this, along with an internalized feeling of worthlessness at some level that makes pushing away such a negative influence difficult. Seriously, reading all your comments, are you saying it's OKAY to whip and beat children because when they grow up they should learn to forgive it if they're reasonable people? What are you saying? Like, I don't really get it. Also, his father was not present at his major trials.
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