We’ve covered a lot of Michael Jackson topics here at I’m A Useless Info Junkie, like Why Michael Jackson Always Taped The Tips Of His Fingers And Wore White Socks? or How Michael Jackson Was Able To Pull Off The Famous Anti-Gravity Lean?
The King of Pop has been in the center of many scandals throughout the years but hands down, the most controversial thing was the change of his skin color.
By the early 1990s, the change on his appearance was more than obvious – the artist who once started as a black kid was now a man with a milky-white skin color. The transition, which started about a decade earlier, was completed. So, what was the case here? (the article continues after the ad)
Contrary to popular belief, Michael Jackson did not bleach himself white. The change was the result of a condition called vitiligo. This, not so rare condition (it affects 1 in 250 people), causes depigmentation of parts of the patient’s skin which results in white spots on the body. While these white spots may not be so easily noticeable on people with pale color skin, there are highly visible on persons with darker skin, such in the case of Jackson:
When the controversy hit its zenith, Jackson spoke openly about his condition in an interview given to Oprah in 1993:
It is something I cannot help. When people make up stories that I don’t want to be who I am, it hurts me. It’s a problem for me. I can’t control it. But what about all the millions of people who sit in the sun to become darker, to become other than what they are. Nobody says nothing about that.
His condition was also confirmed by his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, who stated that he was first diagnosed in 1984. As years went by and the condition was getting worse, Jackson started using makeup to match his original skin color. This is particularly obvious in pictures in which he was sweating:
Once the patches were just too much to easily hide with makeup, Jackson started using Benoquin Cream (monobenzyl ether of hydroquinone). Tubes of this particular product have been found in his house when he died in 2009. Of course, in later stage, he was just removing the brown skin. As Dr. David Sawcer said, “some patients with vitiligo get to the point where it makes more sense to remove the brown bits because so much of the skin is pale.”
When he died, his autopsy confirmed hid condition and vitiligo was written on the report.
So now you know!
We can’t help ourselves but wonder though, how ironic it is that the man who co-authored the line “It don’t matter if you’re black or white”, had vitiligo who turned him from black to… white.
If you like what you read, then you will definitely love this one: This Is Why Michael Jackson Always Taped The Tips Of His Fingers And Wore White Socks
Photo: Alan Light / Flickr, Wikimedia
Photoshop: I’m A Useless Info Junkie
Sources: Michael Jackson Biography | The History Of Michael Jackson’s Face | Michael Jackson autopsy report confirms singer suffered from vitiligo, wore wig, had tattooed makeup