File this under that category, 'things that have made sense to you since childhood, but that you suddenly one day as an adult realize actually do not make sense.'When I was six, Michael Jackson did a commercial for Pepsi which featured some pyrotechnics. During filming, his hair caught fire and he was seriously injured.
For years afterward, my mother and I boycotted Pepsi. I remember us telling one another and other people that we did not buy or drink Pepsi because "they set Michael Jackson's hair on fire."
Perhaps related to this boycott, which I remembered a few days ago and which seems to have originated from logic that I no longer feel that I can entirely explain, is a conversation that CC's friend reported having with students in a summer class that she's teaching.
CC's friend mentioned Michael Jackson's death to her class. In the course of ensuing comments, she realized that the students did not know that he was black. They thought he was white. She explained that he had begun life brown, but that his skin had lightened (unclear why) and he'd had plastic surgery.
They did not believe her.
5 comments:
How could they not know he was black? Other than the child molestation allegations, his skin color(s) is what he's most known for since 1987. At their age, this is like not knowing how to read. I feel like they're just failing themselves at this point.
That's really weird. Wasn't that song "They Don't Really Care About Us" about racism? Would a "white" singer have recorded that song? Plus, hadn't they seen pictures of the Jackson 5, or at least Janet Jackson?
These are good questions that I don't know the answers to. Do you think they were pulling her leg?
Wait, we don't believe that MJ was injured in a fire on the set of a Pepsi commercial? And that led to a series of operations that lightened his skin and shrunk his nose?
We don't?!
word verification: murse
No, we totally believe that. Murse!
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