Michael Jackson's "panther dance" - Symbols & themes

[MusicItsmyLife95]

He was unleashed :)

[Dom2Sick]

LIES !!! This Video and The Person Responsible For Making It Is Completely Flawed... All The Info on the Black Panther Movement and Ghettos are nice, but highly unnecessary and beside the point.

[jxhensley]

@Dom2Sick I'll put my flaws against yours anyday

[monkeymjj]

@jxhensley the original video did have the graffitti on the windows, mtv took it off the next day because they said it "created violence" which is bullshit, you should cahnge that it takes away from michael's message

[MsBaseball19]

Its the countries fault....lol

[AlbaniaLovesMJ]

The video of the African-American man being beaten by the policemen also featured in "They Don't Care About Us" Prison Version. Now it makes EVEN MORE sense. :) Great analysis. There is still something unclear to me, though; what does it mean that the graffiti were added after the world premiere? Doesn't this contradict the whole symbolism of the video?

[SportsWifey06]

Michael Jackson was sorely misunderstood and the amazing work and words he done/had were missed in all the trash that was created around him. Michael; as a musician/performer was amazing, but as a man he was absolutely brilliant. Thanks.

[jxhensley]

Comments about the "Illuminati" will be deleted. No exceptions, don't bother. Save the conspiracy shit for someone else's channel.

[eyekeepmoving]

@jxhensley and the cat is scared and winds pick up for reasons we can not explain

[emma9888]

i don't think so 666 is embedded in ''nigger go home'',i disagree.



[fanatic4music]

thanks so much! i had no idea they only added the grafitti later. makes sense now as to why so many parents and people in general were upset when it first premiered, especially if they didn't understand the racial history involved in this segment. thanks!

[orena11]

Thank you very much for this vid!! I like your comments & perfect quality of this vid. Not mentioning the content:) Amazing.

[fedorandwhitesocks]

thank you so much for the video!!!!!!!!!! <3

[frankthinnes]

very well done analysis! you missed one strong symbol in the video: on the first car window he smashes (at 2:48) is a swastika. We all know what it means and smashing it fits perfectly into the overall message of the clip.

[elephant54376]

ok hes dancing while being mad

[ABCHealTheWorld]

And .. 20 years later .. has the world improved? Maybe instead of everyone dissecting every move of MJ, they should instead be taking a look at the man in their own mirror.

[Lilmusicman13]

@ABCHealTheWorld Preach. I love the King of Pop just like any other MJ fan but he got 2 much attention when he wuz alive when it wuznt necessary.

[julesmj]

I thank you.

Very interesting.

Michael gave out Amazng messages.

[siewertsen1]

Thanks for share!

[cashauer]

Thank you for posting this! I know his messages in his videos, but so many don't. The media in trying to stifle his messages have painted a whole new idea into the minds of the general public so they WOULDN'T listen to nor watch what Michael had to tell us all. The media didn't want us to see what was wrong with the world. Each song and video Michael made has multiple meanings. He intended them to be cross cultural and open the eyes of all to what needs to be changed in this world!

[TheMadoula]

Thanks! Great video and explanation.

[AleezaChocolat]

I had no idea that the LA riots inspired this. Very interesting quote from John Landis. To quote what that Vanity Fair author said to Michael when she met him, "You're not as la-la as we thought!" XD

[027220]

No excuse for the crotch thing.

[skategoddess123]

we aint racist against dogs cats but we our racist against our own species judge our character not our skin

[monica46005]

what was written in the car window that was added after the video premire???

[jxhensley]

@monica46005 "n-- go home"

[Mariokart360Mj]

I didn't even know there was a message in this but that rasim was stupid but there is way more then that!

[misslucianacamino]

YEAH!!! PREJUDICE IS IGNORANCE....

[PinkNative]

Absolute GENIUS! There will never be another great mind like MJ!

[LetLoveRockOn]

They should have left MJ's video the way he made it instead of changing it. He was always trying to spread a message and someone was always trying to stop him from doing that. R.I.P. MJ<3

[ABCHealTheWorld]

Interesting comments ! Learn more every day.

[61barbie]

Michael was a genius ........... unfortunately nothing has changed in America even today, there is such racial prejudice existing - it is astounding. Those men should have been in prison for twenty years or more like an ordinary black citizen would have been if he had attacked a policeman. Thank you so much for explaining all this, I knew it would be something extremely meaningful but had never looked it up until now. I am going to share it with everyone I know. L.O.V.E xx

[PoetGerri]

@61barbie Wow... I'd realized the Black panther connection and the stuff about the graffiti. But I'd never made the connection to the L.A. riots. Boy, Michael really had his pulse on what was on the hearts and minds of black people. And he expressed all without words, only that powerful dance, which served to make his response even more powerful. Michael = 100% pure genius!

[nenabunena]

WOW! I had watched the BET documentary on MJ where they discussed MJ as a Black panther & the symbolism for that. I had also heard that the graffiti wasn't in the original video as well. But I never read what John Landis has said & the connection of the rage at the end of the video in relation to the LA riots! thank you for this!

[TokenPictures111]

Michael was just as clever as the people that run our lives..he loved people so much and all walks of life that he cleverly crafted his videos and spread his love the best way he knew how making him something of a smooth criminal to the industry.

[ksolag]

I thought the original video DID have the words on the car windows, but they had to take the words off because network TV didn't want the "n" word. So people didn't understand why he was smashing the windows.

[jxhensley]

@ksolag From the Toronto Star, 16 November 1991:

"Black or White is billed as a plea for racial harmony, but many viewers couldn't see what [Michael Jackson]'s antics - ripping his clothes, rubbing his crotch, zipping and unzipping his pants and smashing a car's windows with a crowbar - had to do with promoting peace and equality among the races."

[jxhensley]

@ksolag The graffiti version first appeared either on home video or in Michael's concerts (I don't know which). It was never played on television. Networks just left out the whole segment instead.

[Djlullaby22]

wow i love this information. I always though that this song/video was something he used to talk about racism, especially because his skin was getting lighter and lighter. At that time, he still didnt mention he had vitiligo.

But with all this information i was wondering about the name "Black or White", that title is like a question "black or white? and this video is the answer: Black as a black panther. I love it.

[MsDimplecheeks]

Very good points in this video! I can't believe people overlooked the real messages in this video. And MJ was a genuis in conveying these messages through dance!