They Don't Care About Us
i know people have mixed feelings about michael jackson, especially in light of that movie..
but i like to post this every once and a while here on DU.. so if youre offended, i apologize.
= new reply since forum marked as read
but I think some of what was behind the original was that many in the black community here in the U.S. felt that much of his "public" persona was more and more aimed outside of the black community here versus throwing his influence behind advocating on behalf of his original roots. The version I posted that highlights the prison industrial complex and it's extremely negative impact on the urban black community, was his nod to that major major issue - because in essence "they don't really care about us" (and he clearly means himself as well, being a part of the black community).
And in general, throughout his career, he managed to always try to "touch base" with the black community (often thanks to Quincy Jones) and weigh in with illuminating the culture and some of the issues, whether through the rhythm or through the messaging - including showcasing some of the controversies of the day (see the video "Remember the Time", which although humorous, was a powerful visualization of the Afrocentric historical discourse of the time with respect to Egypt). And although he has been dubbed "The King of Pop", he had quite a bit of R&B in his repertoire and always tried to keep that connection.
Of course parallel with that, his sister Janet was carrying quite a bit of the "messaging" weight too. And although I never got to see Michael in concert, I did get to finally see Janet a couple years ago when she resumed her "State of the World" tour.
Her song "State of the World" is 30 years old this year (as well as her other socially conscious song from that album - "The Knowledge" ) and these highlighted the "New Jack Swing" genre that was popular then -
Running concurrent during the time that Janet released the album of those songs, was Michael's "Man in the Mirror" (from the '88 "Bad" album) which really showcased where we were at the time of the late 80s and now in retrospect, how we managed to regress so far back after all the work to address the issues
-
