In light of recent events, I wanted to talk about a black artist who, no matter what you believe about him, wrote a lot of songs about social injustice and leaving the world a better place than you found it: Micheal Jackson.
The song we’re talking about today, They Don’t Really Care About Us, is as controversial today as it was when it came out in 1995 (25 years ago, if you’re keeping count). With a music video showing real human rights abuses (and a later one shot in Brazil, because apparently the first one made Micheal depressed), and using of words such as ‘Jew’ and ‘Kike’, this one ruffled a lot of feathers. But it does have a way of getting into your head, like most Jackson songs.
In the US, radio stations didn’t want to play it due to the controversy of the lyrics and it only reached #30 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number 10 on the US Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart. In Europe it was more successful, reaching the top ten of every country except Spain, where it peaked at number 11.
Before we dive into the song, let’s talk about the more interesting of the two music videos:
It takes place with Jackson in prison (a topical decision on his part, as he was reeling from the allegations of… well, you know). Jackson is seen alone in a cell, with screens on the wall playing well-known scenes of real violence, injustice, and police brutality; such as the military crackdown of the protest in Tiananmen Square, the KKK, war crimes, and other human rights abuses.
This reflects a real situation Jackson was facing at the time. Due to his godlike celebrity status, any prison time he had to serve would have been done in solitary confinement, watching life from behind a screen, for his own protection. He’d have been watching the world, and his life, fly by without any power to make a change.
The video also portrays how we as listeners and as people probably feel when confronted with scenes of injustice: isolated, detached, and ready to start a riot; while simultaneously feeling powerless to do anything more world-changing than making a cup of tea.
Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
Situation, aggravation
Everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dog food
Bang bang, shot dead
Everybody’s gone mad
‘He really wanted this to be a protest song, to talk about humanity to his fellow brothers and sisters’ Said Spike Lee, who directed both music videos for the song.
Certainly the lyrics sound like that, even today. When you look at instances of racial violence, it’s usually a white skin head against the dead head (of a POC). This situation leads to aggravation, which leads to protests and occasionally riots (and then right wing media saying ‘Everybody’s gone mad’).
‘In the suite, on the news’ perhaps refers to how the white majority perceive racism: it’s something that happens on TV, but MLK cured that, right? (SARCASM). It also refers to the desensitisation of us all when it comes to this kind of violent crime, especially with the full colour, blaring audio of someone’s final moments often being caught on camera (starting with Rodney King in 1991). We feel removed, ‘in the suite‘, away from the situations we need to be involved with fixing.
Beat me, hate me
You can never break me
Will me, thrill me
You can never kill me
Jew me, sue me
Everybody do me
Kick me, kike me
Don’t you black-or-white me
This verse of the song got a lot of flack for use of the words ‘Jew’ and ‘Kike’ (with the lyrics eventually being changed to ‘do me’ and ‘strike me’ instead). However in an interview Micheal said:
‘It’s not anti-semetic, because I’m not a racist person. I could never be a racist. I love all races of people. When I say, ‘Jew me, sue me, everybody do me, kick me, kike me, don’t you black-or-white me’, I’m talking about myself as the victim. My accountants and lawyers are Jewish. My three best friends are Jewish. How does that make sense? I was raised in a Jewish community.’
From Micheal’s perspective, he was talking as a sort of spirit of victims everywhere- a generalisation that may be egotistical… or maybe not. The last line, ‘don’t you black-or-white me’, is perhaps a reference to the tabloid personality ‘Micheal Jackson’ portrayed by the media. The plastic surgery addict, the skin-bleacher, the ‘Wacko Jacko’ of the media was far-removed from who Micheal felt himself to be. He was born black, and identified as such throughout his life, no matter how pale he became (due to the skin condition vitiligo, not bleaching, as has been commonly asserted). If your identity was constantly under press scrutiny and the press told you, ‘you want to be something you’re not, and we’re gonna make sure everybody knows it’ every day, wouldn’t you get pissed?
Regardless, it’s unlikely in this blatantly anti-racist song he decided to be like, ‘#EndRacism… unless you’re Jewish. Then #Racism.’ Far more likely is the use of the words to point out how wrong they are, or even to make use of the old phrase ‘Don’t Jew me down‘, used when negotiating lower prices for products. While the term is undeniably racist (especially by today’s standards), perhaps Micheal was indeed tired of being ‘Jewed down’ by the media.
Director Spike Lee commented, “While The New York Times asserted the use of racial slurs in ‘They Don’t Care About Us’, they were silent on other racial slurs in the album. The Notorious B.I.G. says ‘nigga’ on “This Time Around,” another song on (Micheal’s) HIStory album, but it did not attract media attention…”
All I wanna say is that
They don’t really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don’t really care about us
I will submit that the chorus is mostly about police brutality and the lack of care about injustice from the upper classes and police/politicians. But here’s another way of looking at it, given the ‘don’t you black-or-white me’ line.
Micheal was constantly under press scrutiny- perhaps this is a message, in part, to them. They don’t really care about him, they care about the story. They care about finding the ‘Wacko Jacko’ anywhere they can in Micheal’s life, for sales and clicks. They don’t care about the subject of their lies, or even their readers. They just want the money.
Tell me what has become of my life?
I have a wife and two children who love me
I am the victim of police brutality, no
I’m tired of being the victim of hate
You’re raping me of my pride
Oh, for God’s sake
I look to heaven to fulfill its prophecy…
Set me free
Here is where a lesser interpreter might get a bit confused (like I was for ten minutes while I stared at this stanza, wondering what to write). However, here’s my takeaway:
‘I am the victim of police brutality, no
I’m tired of being the victim of hate’
When we say ‘police brutality’, this is a label, and it’s a complicated one. While this is worth looking into, (like we are doing now with the George Floyd riots and calls to defund the police) it isn’t the larger problem: hate. Looking purely at police brutality and not at the system that created such a thing is just going to lead you in circles, as we have seen with the consistent lack of police reform and lack of adequate investigation into the deaths of Black citizens.
‘I have a wife and two children who love me’ is perhaps an attempt to humanise the victim in the eyes of the listener. Often we forget or ignore the lives the victims of hatred beyond them being martyrs. Look no further than George Floyd’s daughter shouting, ‘Daddy changed the world!’ if you want to see a more down-to-earth perspective of a modern day ‘martyr’.
Tell me what has become of my rights
Am I invisible because you ignore me?
Your proclamation promised me free liberty, no
I’m tired of being the victim of shame
They’re throwing me in a class with a bad name
I can’t believe this is the land from which I came
You know I really do hate to say it
The government don’t wanna see
But if Roosevelt was living
He wouldn’t let this be, no, no
Here Micheal talks to the listener, doing what the news often fails to: hold you accountable. We all have a part to play in society, We all have the choice to be a bystander or actively involved with making the world a better place. Or making the world a worse place, when you ‘ignore’ the victims of abuse.
‘Your proclamation promised me free liberty, no… I can’t believe this is the land from which I came!’ Many of my POC friends have experienced the slur, ‘go back to your own country’ (despite them being more British/American than I am). There is nothing worse than being disowned by your countrymen, by your government and police who are meant to keep you safe, because of the colour of your skin. We live in a world where the land of your birth can just dismiss you and condemn you, and that’s pretty messed up.
The ‘victim of shame‘ line highlights the fact that more shame is enforced on Black communities than others. These are often low-income neighbourhoods (carrying the shame of poverty), with increased police presence that leads to a greater chance of a POC being arrested for illegal acts. Recent studies show that black people are arrested at a greater rate for possession of drugs, yet have the same rate of use as white people. This leads to the shame of being a ‘thug’ or a criminal living a ‘lifestyle’… especially in a system that makes it impossible to move on from a criminal act you did in your teens, because that’s on your record forever and nobody will hire you.
Some things in life they just don’t wanna see
But if Martin Luther was living
He wouldn’t let this be, no, no
There’s a tiredness that comes from being marginalised. There’s a lighter kind of tiredness non-POCs feel: witnessing the constant marginalisation of others. You don’t want to see it. You want to look away. I get it. Black Lives Matter has been in the news non-stop lately, and it reappears as a movement whenever another black person is murdered. It’s exhausting to watch the struggles of those less privileged than you. But you have to, because they don’t get a choice about whether or not to be born black. You get the choice to decide if their race matters or not, and how you’re going to help your fellow humans.
Skin head, dead head
Everybody’s gone bad
Situation, segregation
Everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dog food
Kick me, kike me
Don’t you wrong or right me
In the end, the song represented a different Micheal Jackson to the one on the cover of his previous albums, Off the Wall and Thriller. This Micheal was less concerned with dancing, partying, and picking up women; and more concerned with Healing the World and facing up to the Man in the Mirror. He was at a point personally where he was disillusioned, angry and humiliated by the press and allegations. And as a black man, he was aware of racial injustices, so why not write about them? Who better to bring awareness to things than the most photographed man on the planet?
The New York Times was the first publication to complain about the song, calling it racist and anti-semetic in a semantic battle that lasted even after Micheal changed the lyrics in response.
“The idea that these lyrics could be deemed objectionable is extremely hurtful to me, and misleading. The song in fact is about the pain of prejudice and hate and is a way to draw attention to social and political problems. I am the voice of the accused and the attacked. I am the voice of everyone. I am the skinhead, I am the Jew, I am the black man, I am the white man. I am not the one who was attacking. It is about the injustices to young people and how the system can wrongfully accuse them. I am angry and outraged that I could be so misinterpreted.” – Micheal Jackson
Unidentified commentators alleged that the song was still anti-semetic and too ‘ambiguous’ for a teenage audience to understand as an anti-racist message. Patrick MacDonald of the Seattle Times said, ‘There really is no excuse for using terms like ‘Jew me’ and ‘kike’ in a pop song, unless you make it clear you are denouncing such terms, and do so in an artful way.”
As someone who has been listening to this song since I was fourteen years old, I have to ask: what were they smoking?
Still, in spite of all the drama and criticism, the song holds up. Literally, people are still making videos with it about the current state of the world. And it works. It works precisely because the song is ambiguous: it could be about racial injustice, it could be about a schoolteacher ignoring a bully, it could be about Micheal’s personal life. There’s a million ways it can be interpreted. In any event, it is an anthem of protest and one of Micheal’s most underrated songs in terms of message and raw emotion.
It definitely deserves a listen.
LitLangIsLife 