This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything.
Alright. It's the rage bait. It feels like it's trying to divide people. If we got clear facts, maybe we could calm down a little. NBC News brings you clear reporting.
Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America. Uh This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. What's up y'all? Summer's got a different tempo.
Everything's a little looser, brighter. One plan turns into another. You hear something, you stay a little longer.
Next thing you know, you're somewhere you didn't plan to be. It's those in between moments. That's where the ideas hit. conversations stretch out, little memories sneak up on you.
Sometimes it's just about what's in your hand. that color. That chill. a new tropical butterfly refresher from Starbucks. guava and passion fruit flavors with mango pineapple flavored pearls.
Yeah. That feels like summer before you even taste it. Funny how one small stop becomes the best part of the day. Start your summer rhythm with Starbucks. Try the new Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks.
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Coming to you from the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. Michael Jackson's story is one of immense musical talent, global stardom, and significant controversy. Here to tell the story about why Michael Jackson's skin color changed as he aged is Simon Whistler from the Today I Found Out YouTube channel and its sister, the Brain Food Show podcast. Let's take a listen. There was a story about you wanting to have a little white boy play you in a in a in a Pepsi commercial.
That is so stupid. That's the most ridiculous Horrifying story I've ever heard. It's crazy. I mean, why? Number one, it's my face as a child in the commercial, me when I was little.
Why would I want a white child to play me? I'm a black American. I'm proud to be a black American. I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am.
I have a lot of pride in who I am and dignity. That's like you wanting an oriental person to play you as a child. Does that make sense? No. Many scandals marred Michael Jackson's personal life, overshadowing his otherwise remarkable musical career.
One such scandal was the obvious change in his appearance, especially his skin colour, which started from the mid-80s to slowly but surely turn from dark to white. Ow!
So when did the color of your skin start to change? Oh boy, I don't.
Sometime after Thriller, I run off the wall Thriller. By the mid-90s, when Jackson released his album History in 1995, it was more than obvious to even his most dedicated fans that the man of Thriller from 1982 looked nothing like the man who had recently married Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie. By this time, Michael Jackson was milky white. A skin colour transition that started almost a decade earlier was more or less complete.
So, what happened? Go with the bag! According to his family and Jackson himself, the King of Pop had vitiligo, a condition that causes depigmentation of parts of the skin, which usually results in white spots on the patient body.
Okay, number one, this is the situation. I have a skin disorder. that destroys the pigmentation of the skin is something that I cannot help.
Okay, but When people make up stories that I don't want to be who I am, it hurts me. It's a problem for me, okay? I can't control it. It's tough for you to be daddy! Woo!
These are even more noticeable if the person has a dark complexion, as in Jackson's case. V1 in 250 or so people who have this condition typically first start seeing signs of it beginning between 10 and 30 years old. Approximately 30% of the people who have it also have it run in their family, which is true of Jackson. It's in my family, my father said, is on his side. I can't control it.
I don't understand. I mean, it makes me very sad. I don't want to go into my medical history because that's something that's private, but that's the situation here. In addition to this skin disorder, Jackson also reportedly suffered from systemic lupus erythmatosis, which, besides potentially being a very serious condition, can also cause loss of skin pigmentation. When the controversy about his changing skin color hit its zenith, Jackson spoke openly about his vitiligo for the first time in an interview he gave to Oprah in 1993.
He said, among other things, But what about all the millions of people? Let's reverse it.
Okay. What about all the millions of people who sit out in the sun to become dark or to become other than what they are? Mm-hmm. Nobody says nothing about that. BOOM!
In the days after, at Jackson's request, his condition was publicly confirmed by his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, who also stated Jackson was first diagnosed with the condition in 1984. It was also confirmed that he had lupus erythmatosis then, that it was in remission. Conspiracy theorists propose that there was much more to it than this, that in fact Jackson had no such disease and that he instead systemically bleached his skin using Beniquin cream and other medical cocktails in his quest to look like a white person. Are you bleaching your skin?
And is your skin lighter because you don't like being black?
Okay, number one, there, as I know of, there is no such thing as skin bleaching. I have never seen it. The obvious and extensive cosmetic surgeries he had on his eyebrows, eyelashes, lips and nose only served to enforce the theory that he was simply purposefully tweaking his appearance even more by bleaching his skin.
So, is there any truth to this? Yeah. Dr. Christopher Rogers, deputy medical examiner at the Los Angeles Coroner's Office and the man who conducted Michael Jackson's autopsy, chimed in on this after performing the autopsy on Jackson. Dr.
Rogers confirms that Jackson indeed suffered from vitiligo, most notably with patches around his face, chest, abdomen, and arms.
So, did he also bleach his skin? According to dermatologist Dr. Hanish Babu, Jackson did. This is sometimes a treatment used for those with vitiligo. When these white patches first started appearing, you can see from certain of Jackson's concert footage that he was trying to mask them with makeup matching his original skin color.
I just want to get this straight. You are not taking anything to change the colour of your skin. God, no. You did not purposely. Trying to control it and using makeup evens it out because it makes blotches on the skin, and I have to even out my skin.
Once the patches became too numerous to easily hide with makeup, and he supposedly became tired of the extensive time needed to apply the makeup every day, he switched strategies and began the process of bleaching his skin, supposedly under the care of his dermatologist and using 20% mono-bezyl ether of hydroquinone, veniquin cream. Much later, in June of 2009, after his death, tubes of beniquin and hydroquinone were found in Jackson's home. As Dr. David Saucer said, Some patients with visiligo get to the point where it makes more sense to remove the brown bits because so much of the skin is pale. No!
Besides giving him a white complexion, this also results in him being prone to sunburns, which is why in later years he often kept himself nearly completely covered when outside in the sun. In the end, only Jackson knew his true motivation for ultimately choosing to bleach his skin, whether as a treatment for his vitiligo to even out his skin color as reported, or as the conspiracy theorists claim, to further change his appearance to more of a Caucasian look, though one would think the latter would be an odd move for the co-author of the line with Bill Botrell, it doesn't matter if you're black or white. Why is that so important? That's not important to me. I'm a great fan of art.
I love Michelangelo. If I had a chance to talk to him or read about him, I would want to know about what inspired him to become who he is, the anatomy of his craftsmanship. Not about who he went out with last night or why he decided to sit out in the sun so long. What's wrong with, I mean, that's what's important to me. The story of Michael Jackson's skin color.
Here are Now American Stories. Lee Habib here, and I'd like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily. Again, please. Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
It helps us keep these great American stories coming. This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks.
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No one can ever be as good as you! This right here! Don't miss the action of TNA Thursday Night Impact every week on AMC. For show types and more information, visit TNA Wrestling.com.
