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Does Black or White hold up?
Main Post:
In an age where racial division is at an all time high does black or white by Michael Jackson released in 1991 still hold up? Does it still mean anything? Did it ever mean anything? To me yes I think there's no reason to think it doesn't hold up and I dont really know why many people say it doesn't. It's not the deepest song in the world obviously but the song and it's very impressive video for it's time is basically just saying hey everyone on this planet is extremely different with their cultures and whatnot and we should learn to love and accept that and all get along. Like the man is just telling us to just get along and I think there's nothing wrong with anything he said in that song. But what do you guys think? You can state any critisism you got with the song, or the video or Jackson's view on racial unity.
Top Comment: I don't recall people treating it as any kind of impressive statement on racism or race relations at the time. I mean, yeah, it had a message, but it was the same message that MJ had been pushing for years (I'm not being critical, it was just already part of his popular image). What people talked about was the video. It was really damn cool, I loved how smooth and neat those face morph transitions looked. And just like some of his previous videos, its TV premier was a primetime event advertised for weeks ahead of time. It was a big deal, cause MJ was still a big deal, and so was network TV lol. The song itself was fine. Catchy, but not anywhere close to some of his 80s stuff. And again, not a bad message, just kind of generic and well-trod ground by then. Oh, and the car-smashing scene in the video--people definitely thought that was weird. Not just a bit odd in the context of the video, but MJ was seen as kind of this soft, gentle guy, so anytime he tried to act 'hard' it was a little goofy. I'm not saying it doesn't work, it just stands out in my memory as one of the more talked-about aspects of the video/song at the time. If you haven't seen it, the parody video In Living Color did was pretty damn funny.