I hate that they are so reductionist..

Generations literally grew up with AND watched Michael Jackson grow up. He was embedded into the psyche of my moms generation (parents are 60). People talmbout MTV when MTV wasn't even MTV Like how we know it before Mike came through and made it so.

We have no modern music examples of MJ black, white or otherwise to compare him to. There isnt anyone in 20th or 21st century outside of child actors that have lived that long in the zeitgeist.

SIDENOTE:

Funny shit is cats watched "The Breakdown" and didn't say shit about what the characters were "ethnically". For everything it got wrong that is what it got all the way right. The melting pot made this shit we cherish today.