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Simmering race issue

Question is public concern for Jacksons, but muted in court

BY TINA SUSMAN | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

May 23, 2005

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - On a chilly morning outside the Michael Jackson child molestation trial, one voice stood out from the usual chants of "Innocent!" being shouted by fans. "This case is about racism!" the voice screeched as the star alighted from his sport utility vehicle, waved at the crowd, and headed into court.

Had the shouting man spent any time inside the courtroom, he would have realized how far removed his proclamation is from the case being presented to jurors. In a trial that has featured a host of ugly accusations, from secret drinking to pedophilia to hints of animal abuse - one witness was asked if he had seen Jackson throwing rocks at his pet lion - racism is about the only social ill that hasn't come up, a surprise perhaps given memories of the O.J. Simpson, Kobe Bryant, and Mike Tyson cases. Like Jackson, all three were extraordinarily high-profile black men accused of felonies. Unlike Jackson, all three were held up by many social commentators, and by their attorneys, as victims of a system that judges blacks more harshly than others.

In this case, the only people screaming racism other than the occasional fan are the Jacksons themselves, underscoring the oddities of the defendant and of the circumstances in which he finds himself: on trial before an overwhelmingly white jury from a quiet, conservative town whose claim to fame - until now - was its annual strawberry festival.

At one point in jury selection, it appeared race could become an issue when one potential juror, a black woman, challenged the panel's racial makeup. "How diverse is this jury looking to you right now?" she said to prosecutors, who dismissed her. The final jury comprises eight whites, three Hispanics, and one Asian. One of the alternates is black. That is a reflection of the jury pool in Santa Barbara County, where blacks comprise just 2 percent of the population compared with whites at more than 70 percent.

"The race card is only effective if there is an audience that will be receptive to it, and a Santa Maria jury is not going to be receptive to it," said law professor and former Santa Barbara County prosecutor Craig Smith, comparing the situation to that of the Simpson trial. There, the east Los Angeles demographics ensured an overwhelmingly black jury, in an area where blacks had a powerful distrust of law enforcement. "The LAPD and Mark Fuhrman were the villains in the O.J. case," he said, referring to the police officer whose racist utterances figured prominently in Simpson's defense. "Compare that to Santa Maria, where you don't have a hatred for law enforcement. You have the very opposite."

There also is the issue of Jackson's physical appearance. So pale is his skin that when trial proceedings are watched on a TV monitor set up for observers not inside the courtroom, Jackson appears like the grim reaper.

Jackson says his chalky complexion is because of a skin condition, and he denies having plastic surgery to eliminate his once-wide nose and full lips. Whatever you believe, his appearance makes it impossible to lump him into any racial category, said Seth Clark Silberman, a humanities professor at Yale. So thorough has been Jackson's transformation from his days as the 9-year-old front man for The Jackson Five that he has become an entity unto his own, said Silberman, who teaches courses on race and gender.

"I think part of what sells Michael through this trial is his singularity. Yes, he's black, but he's more Michael than he's black, and he's more Michael than he's white," Silberman said.

Those who know Jackson say it is unfair to accuse him of maligning his blackness. From the early 1970s, when The Jackson Five performed for Operation Push, Michael Jackson has been aware of racial inequities and devoted to closing them, said J. Randy Taraborrelli, who has known the Jackson family since the 1970s and who wrote the 1991 biography of Michael Jackson, "The Magic and the Madness." Taraborrelli, who is providing analysis of the trial for CBS News, said the problem faced by the Jacksons in their early years at Motown was that faced by many black artists: the knowledge that coming across as black activists could cost them white fans.

"That didn't mean they didn't have strong feelings about political causes," he said. "Race has always been an issue for the Jacksons privately, but they don't necessarily trumpet that for the world."

That seemed like it might be changing at the start of this case, when Nation of Islam bodyguards began providing security for Jackson. Taraborrelli said family members felt it could accomplish two things: send the message that Jackson had a strong black presence on his team, and provide airtight security. The Nation of Islam plan backfired, generating such negative publicity that the group was dropped. That hasn't stopped family members and Jackson from expressing their belief that race is at the root of the prosecution.

"It is racism," Jackson's father, Joe, said in a January 2005 television interview. Jackson's brother Jermaine called Michael Jackson's arrest in 2003 a "modern-day lynching." Jackson portrayed himself as a victim of racism in a March radio interview with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, comparing himself to Nelson Mandela and other "black luminaries" he said had been unjustly prosecuted.

Even if such sentiments aren't aired in the courtroom, they serve an important purpose. "Michael clearly has two jobs," said Silberman. "The first is to win the case legally. But he's also figuring out how to present this case publicly, and he feels like presenting it through the lens of race is going to inspire sympathy, if not empathy."

Some legal experts suggest the Jackson defense may be keeping race in mind for an appeal or retrial. That, however, would only happen if the jury convicts or is unable to reach a verdict, something observers say is unlikely given the strong defense witnesses and the shaky prosecution ones. Whereas race was crucial in the Simpson case, Jackson's defense has planted reasonable doubt without it, said Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson.

"Ultimately, race is not the big issue here," she said. "He's a black man, but he's not O.J."

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Simmering race issue

Question is public concern for Jacksons, but muted in court

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