Michael Jackson's new album, ''Dangerous,'' premiered at No. 1 on Billboard's pop chart Dec. 9, and the album's hit single, Black or White, is being played constantly on the airwaves. But does it matter if you're black or white?
I would like to think that Jackson's message is sincere. But I don't. It's hard to believe it is when he has altered his black features through plastic surgery and apparently made his skin tone two or three shades lighter.
His song attempts to portray a need for racial harmony and peace in the midst of gang warfare and inner-city strife. At the end of the song's video, we see positive images of cultural diversity, a slew of multicultural faces melding into each other - beautiful Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, blacks and whites.His single recognizes the conflict of race in U.S. society and a need for racial harmony. But if we were to follow his example, the solution would be to make ourselves look more white, to change our appearance.
We have enough racial categorizing in this society. If you have pigmentation in your skin, society makes distinctions between those who have more and those who have less.
This happens among Latinos and blacks.
In Latino culture, to look Indian is often viewed as unattractive or inferior. The Spanish word for Indian, ''indio,'' is sometimes equated with being stupid. For some, it's better to claim Spanish or European background than Indian. But the majority of Latino people are ''mestizo'' - a mixture of the two.
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