by
Black Girl With Long Hair
Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris covers the latest issue of Rolling Stone, and in her first in-depth interview, the heiress to the Jackson fortune gives a surprisingly candid look at her life, including how she identifies racially. Paris’ mother, Debbie Rowe, is white. But some have wondered whether Michael was her biological father. From Rolling Stone;
“But Paris is certain that Michael Jackson was her biological dad. She believes it with a fervency that is both touching and, in the moment, utterly convincing. “He is my father,” she says, making fierce eye contact. “He will always be my father. He never wasn’t, and he never will not be. People that knew him really well say they see him in me, that it’s almost scary.
“I consider myself black,” she says, adding later that her dad “would look me in the eyes and he’d point his finger at me and he’d be like, ‘You’re black. Be proud of your roots.’ And I’d be like, ‘OK, he’s my dad, why would he lie to me?’ So I just believe what he told me. ‘Cause, to my knowledge, he’s never lied to me.
“Most people that don’t know me call me white,” Paris concedes. “I’ve got light skin and, especially since I’ve had my hair blond, I look like I was born in Finland or something.” She points out that it’s far from unheard of for mixed-race kids to look like her – accurately noting that her complexion and eye color are similar to the TV actor Wentworth Miller’s, who has a black dad and a white mom.”
Paris also offered touching insight into the kind of relationship she had with her dad.
“Michael gave the kids the option of going to regular school. They declined. “When you’re at home,” says Paris, “your dad, who you love more than anything, will occasionally come in, in the middle of class, and it’s like, ‘Cool, no more class for the day. We’re gonna go hang out with Dad.’ We were like, ‘We don’t need friends. We’ve got you and Disney Channel!'” She was, she acknowledges, “a really weird kid.”
Her dad taught her how to cook, soul food, mostly. “He was a kick-ass cook,” she says. “His fried chicken is the best in the world. He taught me how to make sweet potato pie.” Paris is baking four pies, plus gumbo, for grandma Katherine’s Thanksgiving – which actually takes place the day before the holiday, in deference to Katherine’s Jehovah’s Witness beliefs.
Michael schooled Paris on every conceivable genre of music. “My dad worked with Van Halen, so I got into Van Halen,” she says. “He worked with Slash, so I got into Guns N’ Roses. He introduced me to Tchaikovsky and Debussy, Earth, Wind and Fire, the Temptations, Tupac, Run-DMC.”
She says Michael emphasized tolerance. “My dad raised me in a very open-minded house,” she says. “I was eight years old, in love with this female on the cover of a magazine. Instead of yelling at me, like most homophobic parents, he was making fun of me, like, ‘Oh, you got yourself a girlfriend.’
“His number-one focus for us,” says Paris, “besides loving us, was education. And he wasn’t like, ‘Oh, yeah, mighty Columbus came to this land!’ He was like, ‘No. He fucking slaughtered the natives.'” Would he really phrase it that way? “He did have kind of a potty mouth. He cussed like a sailor.” But he was also “very shy.””
When Michael enduring public accusations and scrutiny, he confided in his daughter, then just 9 years old.
“My dad would cry to me at night,” she says, sitting at the counter of a New York coffee shop in mid-December, cradling a tiny spoon in her hand. She starts to cry too. “Picture your parent crying to you about the world hating him for something he didn’t do. And for me, he was the only thing that mattered. To see my entire world in pain, I started to hate the world because of what they were doing to him. I’m like, ‘How can people be so mean?'” She pauses. “Sorry, I’m getting emotional.”
Paris and Prince have no doubts that their father was innocent of the multiple child-molestation allegations against him, that the man they knew was the real Michael. Again, they are persuasive – if they could go door-to-door talking about it, they could sway the world. “Nobody but my brothers and I experienced him reading A Light in the Attic to us at night before we went to bed,” says Paris. “Nobody experienced him being a father to them. And if they did, the entire perception of him would be completely and forever changed.” I gently suggest that what Michael said to her on those nights was a lot to put on a nine-year-old. “He did not bullshit us,” she replies. “You try to give kids the best childhood possible. But you also have to prepare them for the shitty world.””
Read the full Rolling Stone interview here.
30 Responses
These are not MJ’s sperm. She knows it which is why she will keep nutting out. No one talks about paternity tests cause they know better or there is some codicil of Michael’s will (he was too smart and had too many major financial advisors not to have a will. And when he decided to have 3 white children to cover for his desire and transformation to a white man he made deals of silence with the mothers ….why wouldn’t he cover his legacy. Possibly “take a paternity test and lose your inheritance”!
I’m glad she can identify with her dad. Girls and women need to know who their father is no matter the race or what is “biological”. It takes more than skin color and a pay check to be a dad….just pushing a baby out doesn’t make you a great mother or father…loving the child from the heart does….Happy for you Paris!?
LOL
Unfortunately due to all mystery and hear say surrounding Michael Jackson’s love life and the conception of the children, none of us can really say. She does not look like the old him or the modified him. She does not have African phenotype features. She does not look like her brothers. Her brothers do not look like MJ either. Is it our fault for all the confusion? She maybe socialized Black. She may even be racially partially Black, its a far out genetic possibility. It seems she identifies Black, thats good to know.
I’m amazed at the arrogance of people that are going to tell Paris Jackson that she is not Black because she doesn’t “look” Black. She is a grown woman and can identify as she wishes. If she says she is Black, then I respect her decision and consider her to be Black.
Oh, yes. They’re all “Black” until the cops show up. That’s when they stop thinking like Keisha and start thinking like Peggy Sue. Best comment by Purple Sound above. BTW, she’s not black 🙂
it really annoys me how much african american people want to deny you as black, unless you’re dark skinned or your melanin is extremely high. she doesn’t look like michael jackson but if you look at latoya jackson before the surgery she looks similar.
She has just as much right to identify as black as she wants. Maybe michael had weak genes, maybe she is a throw back. My family is like this . My great great gandma was irish and she got with a black man, my great great nan got with a black man, my nan got with a black man, my mum got with a white man with my sister came out really light skinned. people say she looks italian… me and my brother have the same dad and my own dad is light/medium skinned black and i came out light/medium skinned and my brother came out really dark skinned (beautiful even complexion)… people on my dad’s side used to call me red skinned and make me feel less than, telling me i wasn’t black enough…
Maybe we need to pick what is Black and what is not. Look at all the other races in the world who are xenophobic, they thrive, they have their own economy and thrive, example Japan.
We as Black people really need to stop accepting everybody’s mixed babies and start creating our own Beauty Standard which should be DARK SKIN, 4BC HAIR., and everyone should aspire to be that, like how we obsessive aspire to be close to white and/or mixed with white/non-Black.
As soon as self love starts to blossom in Black Communities worldwide, we will start to break away from the success of slavery and white supremacy and things will come, we will prosper, we just need to love BLACKNESS , DARK SKIN, and Breathtaking 4bc hair.
If you’re counting blackness as dark skin with type 4 hair, then at least 1/2 the black community is no longer black. I agree, we should appreciate and praise those feature more so than we do because those features tend to be shunned, but you can’t throw out people from the community because of it. Instead, we need to change our way of thinking about those features. A skin tone doesn’t determine if you’re black or not. If that were the case, albinos couldn’t be black either.
Also, being xenophobic is not the answer. We as Black people should know first hand what it feels like to be excluded for who you are, so why should we do it to others? Especially when we’re still trying to gain basic human rights. We shouldn’t be putting others down to lift ourselves up. We need to have a positive view of ourselves and everyone around us, but most importantly, we need to care about ourselves first, and that means ALL of us, including people who don’t “look Black”.
Oh please! He is their father cause he bought them but they are not his biological children and y’all including him had no concern for these kids emotions or spirit they are accessories to his latter-day insanity and will be permanently damaged by the hole in their soul that one day will start bleeding and won’t stop .
Well since most white people think of being black as a gang.. For example, the comments, “The Blacks” – I guess she can identify with blacks if she wants to.. smh
Oh, yes. They’re all “Black” until the cops show up. That’s when they stop thinking like Keisha and start thinking like Peggy Sue.
Lol! There is so much truth in that one sentence.
LOL
Race doesn’t actually exist. It is a social construct. Most of what binds us as black people is a shared culture and our collective response to being non-white. Skin color wasn’t really a factor. We know that even during slavery if you were born to a black woman (of any shade), you were considered black, colored, negro or mulatto. You could look white but you weren’t considered white. “Black” people come in every hue from blue-black to chalk. It’s the culture or ethnic group you identify with that determines who you are. Now, white folks certainly play a part in determining who is one of them and who isn’t one of them. My step-mother looks remarkably like a slightly older Susan Sarandon. She is a Creole from NOLA. As soon as she opens her mouth, you know she is not white. She would never lay claim to it either.
My husband is a white Hispanic man. Meaning he has a white mother and Hispanic father. Most people looking at him see white but that’s not how he views himself. A good number of my Hispanic friends are the same way. Their skin may be white or barely beige but they identify as white (Anglo) because that’s not the culture they identify with. I’m lightish (some would say redbone or yellow) but definitely a black woman. My 14 yo daughter doesn’t look black. [Looking at her baby pictures recently, I finally had to admit the child looked pretty “white”. I honestly didn’t notice when she was a baby.] She looks very stereotypically Hispanic. More America Ferrera, less Rosie Perez. She definitely identifies as black. She will fight anyone who thinks she is white. Why? Because the dominant culture she is raised in is a black culture. 75% of her friends are black. 20% are Hispanic and the rest are white.
I know Paris’ brother Prince considers himself black. They are surrounded by a rather large black family. That’s the cultural conditioning they are familiar with. How you look doesn’t necessarily determine how you identify. My great-grandfather could easily pass. He never did because his neither his wife or daughter could. With his light-brown hair, white skin and green eyes, he never considered himself anything but. His mother was blond and blue-eyed. She too was a black woman or on the census records, mulatto. It’s ethnic, it’s culture.
I understand.. Too bad America created this monster and they dictate around the world..
and Hispanic is a language group and culture. Racially, you can be 100% white (Jessica Alba?) and Hispanic, or 100% black (Zoe Saldana, maybe) and Hispanic. Most of the African enslaved people were taken to Latin America.
So in that case Africans don’t have to be considered black then? Skin color may not be a factor now(depending on who you ask) but it was the basis of it.
I am not going to hate on her. Her life has been and will remain rough enough as it is. We can’t even imagine the bs/confusion/hate that has followed her and her siblings all her life.
Her family is black and she wants to connect with that in her life. This is NOT a Rachel D situation. I give Paris a pass. She can be on my team.
She’s not black 🙂
It seems that people have forgotten what Micheal Jackson originally looked like. Dark skin, wide nose and generous lips. Many of his brothers have mixed race kids (the band LMFAO) and none of them look like Michael’s children. Those are not Micheal Jackson’s biological children. Genetics doesn’t work like that. What counts that he and his family loved them and instilled the message that there is nothing wrong with being black (even if they are not).
“Those are not Micheal Jackson’s biological children. Genetics doesn’t work like that.”
Genetics DOES work like that sometimes and all bets are off when it comes to predicting what mixed-race children will look like. Just look at Quincy Jones’ daughter, Rashida, or Lionel Ritchie’s daughter Sofia, though the latter does have more typically “Black” features. It may not be the norm but it does happen, even when one of the parents has a stereotypical Black phenotype.
That said, I also don’t believe those kids are his biological children, lol, but not because of how they look.
My “black” cousin and his “white” wife have 4 children. 1 is slightly darker with very curly hair – greenish eyes, one is a little lighter with pretty curly hair, but big curls-not kinky – brown eyes. One is med skin toned, looks almost Hispanic, with so far nearly straight hair and brown eyes, and one with a great caramel complexion, soft curly BLONDE hair and blue eyes! All are obviously his…look just like him…and have totally different complexions!
LMFAO she thinks she’s black and idiots will say that she is because she was raised by a black man and blah blah. Being raised by one doesn’t make you black honey. Also it’s obvious that they aren’t MJs biological kids but they are his kids coz he raised them etc. As long as they don’t claim they’re black, it’s fine. She’s really pretty and I hope she stops smoking if she wants a long great modelling career. Black people need to stop claiming everyone and get rid of the one drop rule.
… I don’t know how I feel about this.
I mean her dad could of also not wanted to admit that she’s not his biological kid. This might be a Rachel Dolezal case all over again…
I personally believe you’re the race you look like. I’m a light skin central african. Theres no way in hell that I am anything but one ethnicity because lightskins have always been common in my familys blood line. But in North america people see me and treat me as mixed. Race is not a identity that you wish to be seen as. It’s an experience that you did not ask for in the first place. I’m from Canada so it’s bit different over here. People identify more with the culture from the regions they come from or from their multiple nationalities. It’s only in america that black culture and white culture is a thing. Race and culture are way to intertwined because of the countrie’s history. So some people that grew up in a black family like Paris struggle to find an identity.
Race and culture are ingrained in many countries’ history. The U.S just seems to be the only one people call out. Many other countries continue to discriminate those who “look black” or “look white”. The skin color someone is doesn’t tell you what their racial make up is.
“I personally believe you’re the race you look like”.
You are free to believe that but I don’t agree. My mom has the skin tone of an Italian person, and gets mistaken by white people for being white and Latinos for being a latina. But she’s black. Her parents (my grandparents) were both brown skinned. Her ancestry results says she is over 75% African. Therefore I like to keep an open mind when evaluating people by their appearance. They can be anything. Paris looks like a white girl, but there is a possibility she can be mixed with black. If that’s the case (her being 50/50) then I think she has a right to identify with her black side. If she’s not even half, well, she can still have a black family and stand with black people if she wants but at the end of the day your DNA isn’t black. I still love Paris either way.
I think you guys didn’t understand me well. I was implying that race is a social construct not that racism doesn’t exist in other countries. And on like other social constructs such as nationality the idea of race was only created to be purely harmful. Racism and race are concepts that coexist. One can’t be without the other. So when a person says they’re proud of being black, white, asian or whatever its kinda ridiculous. Since race is a class determined by the stereotypes associated with your outer appearance. You’re essentially saying that I’m proud of being treated differently because of my looks. But in America race=cultural background. This is due to the fact the country is made of long generations of immigrants that don’t want to identify with their nationality (instead of just saying I’m American they say african american, white, black, latino…) and that don’t want to acknowledge or just don’t know their African and European ancestries. If you traveled to other countries, you would notice that black people don’t stick together because of race but because of cultural resemblances. I mean here Haitians don’t hang out with Congolese people or South Africans. Coming back to what I said before race is defined by the way other people see you, not your cultural background. You’re right your DNA isn’t black. Paris can say shes black because she could be mixed but it doesnt matter since she’s not treated like a black person.
Very interesting article but I strongly side-eye her identifying as black. I love Michael Jackson though.
Wow, no comments yet?
This was a beautiful insight into Michael. The media makes and breaks a star. No matter the allegations, America may have viewed him as a child-molester, but that shit didn’t kick with the rest of the world. Yes we saw the news, and read up on everything, at least we were not as gullible as most Americans were, with his case. I believe what she’s saying. And no, do not ‘gently’ suggest that that was too much for a 9 year old. Are you a parent? If you are, you’ll know that children see and know more than you think. If not, well that explains a lot. I saw more than my fare share of how unfair this world can be before I turned 9. She had to be prepared. How long will you shield a child from the harsh realities of life before you begin to mold them to be warriors? His children are his legacy, his life, the one thing he held most dear, so he thought ahead for them. You NEVER suggest how parenting should have gone to any parent. Whether good or bad. It just worsens the situation and makes you look petty.
Good luck to his children. I hope they lead fulfilling lives.