Unearthed letters from 1987 reveal Michael Jackson’s fury over racism in pop music, taking aim at white rock icons including the Beatles.
New letters exposed by The Sun reveal that the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, held burning resentment towards racial inequality in the music industry, accusing MTV of giving black musicians the cold-shoulder while leveraging focus toward white stars.
In a note from 1987, handwritten at the height of the Bad singer’s fame, Jackson takes aim at the Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Bruce Springsteen as unjustly idolised musicians of the time.
The never-before-seen letter reveals the frustration Michael Jackson felt around the fact that Presley and Springsteen were referred to as “The King” or “The Boss”, writing that: “white men have always branded the pages of history with great white hopes putting whites over blacks as nobles.”
Attacking The Beatles, Jackson wrote: “Yes these guys were good, but they weren’t better singers or dancers than the blacks.”
“My goal is to become so ‘Big’, so powerful. To become such a hero, to end prejudice. To make these little white kids love me by selling over 200,000,000 albums,” he continued. “Make them look up to me. I will change the world.”
Michael Jackson’s Thriller did, in fact, become the biggest selling album of all time, with around 66 million copies sold to date.
Jackson ended his rambling thoughts stating, “I am not prejudice, it’s just time for the first black king now.”
While the Man in the Mirror singer holds an undeniably tainted legacy following posthumous child sexual abuse allegations, Jackson’s commitment to racial equality continued to be a recurring theme in his music for decades to come, and today, Michael Jackson holds his place in modern history as the King of Pop.
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