MICHAEL: The Price of Music for Our Generation

🎙️ Episode 9

Michael The Price of Music for Our Generation
(Our Truth, Our History, Our Story)

📝 Episode Summary

What did it mean to be Michael Jackson before he became a global icon?

In this episode, we step beyond the music and into the historical reality that shaped his life. Drawing from lived experience in the Midwest near Gary, Indiana, this reflection connects one family’s story to a broader cultural truth shaped by the Great Migration and the realities of Black life in America from the 1960s forward.

🔍 What We Explore

• The role of fathers like Joe Jackson navigating limited opportunity
• The strength and constraints experienced by mothers like Katherine Jackson
• How systemic barriers shaped Black family life and opportunity
• Why music—through groups like The Jackson 5—became a pathway forward
• The cost of childhood fame and the loss of ordinary life
• How we interpret the past differently through a modern lens

🎬 Film & Cultural Context

Directed by Antoine Fuqua and featuring powerful performances by Colman Domingo and Nia Long, the film invites us to consider not just who Michael Jackson was, but the world that made him.

🎥 MICHAEL will bring audiences a riveting portrayal of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop.
Watch the official trailer and learn more: https://michael.movie/
In theatres April 24, 2026

🧠 Why This Conversation Matters

This is more than a story about fame. It’s about:

• Family survival
• Generational pressure
• Cultural identity
• The cost of greatness

It’s also a reminder that to understand history, we must step into the realities of the time, not just judge them from the present.

📣 Resources / Links

Read the poem mentioned, “We Had Him” by Maya Angelou
https://allpoetry.com/poem/14326539-We-Had-Him-by-Maya-Angelou

Share the film
 W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel with a Cause premieres May 19, 2026

Share the trailer
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kMsik6rDQM

Transcript is available here
 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2598323

Watch here
https://youtu.be/hEEBgWkChNU 

Listen here
 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2598323/episodes/19009870

Stay connected
 https://linktr.ee/ritacoburnmedia

🎬 About the Series

Our Truth, Our History, Our Story (Our THS) explores the people, ideas, and cultural forces shaping Black history and storytelling today.

👥 Production Credits

Host: Rita Coburn
Executive Producer: Andrew T. Carr
Producers: Christine Coburn Whack, H. Lee Whack

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

For our truth, our history, our story, I want to ground this conversation on the biopic Michael, a reflection of the life of pop star Michael Jackson, in a very personal context for you and for the people of Michael's generation, the baby boomers. We can all appreciate the film, but his life was a part of the boomer generation. I grew up just outside of Gary, Indiana, Michael Jackson's birthplace, in a south suburb of Chicago, about 20 miles away. I was a young girl in Phoenix, Illinois, born the same year as Michael Jackson. My father, like Michael's father, Joe Jackson, worked in the steel mills. As we look at this film, directed with depth and creativity by Antoine Fuqua, whose growing career is marked by a diverse range of stories, there will be many opinions and interpretations of Michael. Left out of the film and still in the court of public opinion and civil and criminal courts are accusations of sexual abuse that were never admitted to by Jackson, nor was he ever convicted. So I cannot speak to those issues. What I want to focus on is the time period itself, that history, one I know well from growing up in the Midwest. It may have been similar for many African Americans across the country, but here's what I remember. Black men were working in still mills, often the best opportunity available to them after relocating from the South as part of the Great Migration. Joe Jackson, like many black men of that time period, had never finished high school. They wanted something better for their children and were determined, sometimes harshly so, and not always sophisticated in how they expressed that determination. They were navigating a society that was often hostile, and they were trying to push their families forward. This was before the kinds of conversations we now have about parenting, trauma, and emotional expression. The ways women and children were treated were very different from what we generally accept today, though in some places I'm sure those dynamics still exist. But I want to paint a picture of that time, our truth, so that audiences have an opportunity to watch this film in 2026 and better understand the dynamics from the 60s walking up to the 2000s without seeing it all through a modern lens of today. Joe Jackson represents a familiar archetype, the overly strict black father with little money or formal education. But there's an added layer. He had played in a band himself and found that he had children with extraordinary musical talent. That talent became the family's pathway out. His children became his only perceived asset. His methods were clunky, orthodox, unorthodox, rather, and painful, rooted in an attempt to change generational outcomes. Active with his trademark depth, I had to strain to recognize Coleman Domingo. He very quickly became, and without retreat, Joe Jackson. Now, consider the women of that era. The feminist movement of the 70s, largely led by white women, was about gaining rights they had been denied by their husbands and sons from an earlier time in the 40s through the 60s. They were awakening. From her birth in Alabama in the 30s to her marriage to Joe Jackson in the 50s, to the birth of 10 children by the mid-60s, Catherine Jackson and many black women were in a different position altogether. There were no rights to wrestle from our husbands or fathers. Our husbands and fathers had no rights to give. Faced with housing restrictions that told us where we could and could not live, and violence from our government and police system, jobs as opposed to careers for the vast majority, the systemic barriers that shaped daily life were marked by few, if any, social and political rights that could be exercised. One commonality between almost all women in our culture at that time was that marriage for many women may have included love, but was often tied to economic survival. In the book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellion, feminist activists and author Gloria Steinem would sum it up this way: quote, most women in this country are only one man away from welfare, end quote. It was a time when divorce was less common, and single parenthood with financial independence was far more difficult to navigate. Many women stayed home or worked low-paying jobs while raising large families, often without access to birth control, and many stayed in marriages to survive. Icons of carefree beauty for black women were few. As girls growing up, finally we had Diana Ross. Then we had the Jacksons as men and young boys that we could aspire to or watch the Jackson Five. For young people, music and performance were among the few visible pathways forward. Even sports were often out of reach at that time. And especially coming out of the church, we looked to music. Looking at Catherine Jackson, we see a woman of reserve strength raising 10 children with a demanding husband and limited resources. Her story reflects so many women of that time. Played superbly by Nia Long, Catherine Jackson was restrained, constrained, and limited to being an unequal partner. Now, Michael Jackson, played by his nephew, the uber talented JFR Jackson, embodies his uncle's character. He was a special child, exceptionally talented and different. Today we have language resources and systems to support children who stand out and don't fit the mold. At that time, support came from family, faith, and community. There was nothing more formal than that. There are moments in the film that will make people pause when Michael sees other children playing but cannot join them. We see the cost of being the asset for the family. Discipline was harsh, belts, strict rules, but within that time and context, it was often seen as necessary. We would quote, spoil the child, don't spoil the child, use the rod. But it helps us to contemplate what it meant to live under siege inside a family with a tether of love, commitment, control, and sometime disdain. When Michael turns to animals for companionship, we see a longing for unconditional love, a spiritual connection that perhaps he struggled to find among people. The closest expression of that love in his life appears to have come from his mother. Catherine Jackson is still with us today in her 90s. And I think about her journey from poverty to becoming the matriarch of a family worth millions, yet still fundamentally a mother trying to guide her children through changing times. Michael Jackson broke barriers, created new ones, and then broke those as well, becoming the first black performer on MTV. While the film does not address certain allegations or controversies, it suggests that there also may be more to come. Perhaps a broader story is still unfolding. In fact, Antoine Fuqua hints at a sequel. Still, there are truths we may never fully know. What we do know is that Michael Jackson is part of our cultural history, part of our story as black Americans, and has transcended to be part of the international entertainment industry story. I remember the day he died. I was working for Oprah Winfrey at the time on her radio team. We were on a cruise she had gifted to her entire staff, which she accurately named Trip of a Lifetime. We were traveling through Spain, Greece, and Turkey from aboard a cruise ship. On June 25th, while in the middle of the ocean, the announcement came. The entire ship grew silent. People stopped, looked at each other, unsure how to process an icon too young and suddenly gone. Shortly after, Maya Angelo, who I was working with at the time, wrote a poem called We Had Him. She told me she had been asked by the family to write it, and she did. You might want to look that poem up on the internet and find her reciting the poem. We cannot deny Michael's existence, and we can only contemplate the full truth, but he is definitely a part of our story. As you see the film, I'd be glad to know your ideas. I am the producer, director, and writer of W.E.B. Du Bois Rebel with a Cause, a PBS documentary that will air on American Masters PBS May 19th of this year, 2026. Please search for the YouTube trailer and share it today.