One day last week when I came home, my mother was watching the news coverage of the Jackson Family’s latest drama. After the news moved on to the next segment, my mother proclaimed “The Jackson Family have been a public circus since the 1960s.” My mother is kinda right.
Ever since the success of The Jackson 5 in 1964 the family has lived under the celebrity microscope at their own or against their will. The attention of the family as a whole accelerated in the 1980 with Michael and Janet’s rises to super-stardom. Shortly after, stories of Joe’s alleged abusive ways and infidelity made headlines, Michael couldn’t blink an eye without the paparazzi following him while he was trying to live his life the way he wanted (Bubbles the Chimp, Neverland Ranch, the birth of his kids, etc.,) and despite Janet’s attempts to keep her life as private as possible, we all found out about her secret marriage to James DeBarge in 1985 and her second marriage to Rene Elizondo after they divorced in 2000.
We know that the press makes everything they do a major news story. To this day we are still seeing reports about appeals made in the FCC’s case against CBS for Janet’s “nipple-gate” at the hands of Justin Timberlake in the 2004 Super Bowl. The press can never get enough of the alleged plastic surgeries that various members of the family have gotten (they particularly came after Michael and La Toya the most, until recently when Jermaine began appearing in public with hair that looks like black paint.) Then there are those who attack the family and bring them unwanted attention. Michael was was accused twice of sexual molestation in his adult life, while La Toya was a victim of an abusive marriage and had a best-selling book based off of lies forced by then husband Jack Gordon along with a Playboy spread and video to match. But, every now and then, a member of the family manages to make a spectacle of themselves; Joe attempting to promote a new artist shortly after Michael’s death and a cologne in the family name, Jermaine appearing on the UK version of Celebrity Big Brother, and The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty are just a few examples. Now, in the recent weeks, the Jackson family drama has been brought to the forefront by the children.
While complete details are still fuzzy, it appears that there is a rift in the family over the late King of Pop’s estate, with Janet, Jermaine, Randy and Rebbie (the only Jackson that manages to stay out of the public eye) on one side and Michael’s kids Paris, Prince Michael I and Prince Michael II (Blanket) on the other, according to reports. After a missing person’s report was filed and Paris took to her Twitter account to inform the WORLD that her grandmother, Katherine was “missing,” Jermaine took to Twitter as well to proclaim that Katherine was taking a much needed break in Arizona, even posting a picture of her playing UNO with friends. Paris continued to count the days that she had not heard from her grandmother on Twitter, and shortly after a week, all hell broke loose.
A surveillance video of an altercation between Janet and Paris made its way through the internet, with Janet allegedly slapping her niece, attempting to take her phone, and calling her that “b” word that means “a female dog.” Prince posted text messages from Janet on Twitter, Katherine lost custody of the kids to Tito’s son TJ, and the fight for Michael’s estate continues on, and every move of it is documented by family members and the media via Twitter.
Jackson Family, enough is enough.
Michael is rolling over in his grave not only over the fact that his family is involved in a bitter war, but the fact that he fought so hard for his kids to have a normal, private life yet they continue to make all of their personal business known on Twitter. This has gone so far that other people are throwing their two cents in, including Gladys Knight saying she would knock Paris’ teeth out, Chris Brown begging the family to stop for the sake of the kids (because we all know he is still convinced he is Michael Jackson) and Kiah, the rapper who is still bitter at Janet over the “So Excited” song, tweeting the kids offering her support as “Auntie Kiah” ( ._.)
There have been almost 5 decades worth of the Jackson Family’s most private moments made public, so you would think the family would know when enough was enough, right? It is really time for the Jackson family to finally come together and say “Let’s keep all of our family struggles private. Let’s try to keep the press away and let’s not go act out in public while we settle this, ok?”
I know that kids will be kids, and while Paris & Prince are too young for Twitter anyway (it REALLY should be 18+, but i digress,) someone needs to step in, teach them about privacy, and explain to them what their father REALLY went through in his struggles with fame and why Tweeting every little detail about their lives is not what he would have wanted.
Jermaine, please get off Twitter.
And Janet, girl. I know you are asserting your authority as an adult, which you should do, but you should know by now that kids are more savvy with technology than adults are. Watch what you say on the phone. And you know that house has surveillance cameras. If you are going to discipline the kids, do it AWAY from the camera!
Come on now. La Toya is the one begging for this to stop for the sake of the family’s image. La Toya!
In all, it has been 5 long decades, and the Jackson Family should know the meaning of “privacy” by now. Do it for Michael’s sake. Maybe if the Jackson’s weren’t so busy fighting, they would have seen how the first episode of the new Adult Swim show Black Dynamite ripped them all a new one (in a so wrong, yet so hilarious way.) But, I digress, again.
