Black or White is a 1991 pop rock song written and performed by Michael Jackson.
It is heard on Married... with Children in the season 10 episode, "How Bleen Was My Kelly".
Background[]
The song is described as "a rock and roll song about racial harmony".
The music video for the song (which is spoofed in its MWC appearance), features actor Macaulay Culkin, who listens to the song after his father (played by Cheers actor George Wendt) complains about how loud the music is. It then follows up with Michael Jackson singing and performing with people of different cultures in various locations. One of the most well known scenes in the video feature several actors and models, such as Tyra Banks, who are shown transforming into another person while mouthing the lyrics.
The extended cut of the video became controversial due to a scene in the musical break. It shows a black panther transforming into Michael Jackson, who then proceeds to perform sexually suggestive dance moves on an empty streets. He is shown screaming and breaking various items around him, eventually destroying a car and motel sign in an area featuring racist graffiti. An edited version was later released.
Despite the song's message about racial harmony, Jackson at the time was mocked by the media due to his changing skin color caused by vitiligo, which was making his skin much more lighter than it was at the beginning of his solo career in 1980. The music video and its controversial scene, as well as Jackson's skin condition would later be parodied in a skit on the sketch comedy show, In Living Color, which aired on FOX, the home network of MWC.
Appearance on MWC[]
An instrumental version of the song is played during the season 10 episode, "How Bleen Was My Kelly". In that particular scene, Kelly is tasked with making a cure for Bleen, due to its unwanted side effect of making Al and the men of NO MA'AM wanting to make love to their wives. She ends up tying up her brother, Bud, and begins to experiment on him to find the antidote.
As in the "Black or White" music video, throughout the scene, the different formulas that Kelly makes causes Bud's head to transform into:
- A rabbi
- A black female child
- A bald muscular tattooed Latino
- A Geisha
- A smiling Al Bundy
- A can of Vienna Sausages
The song ends as Bud reaches his final form, an older, bitter version of himself who instantly rejected a sexy woman that Kelly brought in.
Lyrics[]
[Michael Jackson]
I Took My Baby
On A Saturday Bang
Boy Is That Girl With You
Yes We're One And The Same
Now I Believe In Miracles
And A Miracle
Has Happened Tonight
Hee
But, If
You're Thinkin'
About My Baby
It Don't Matter If You're
Black Or White
Ooo...
They Print My Message
In The Saturday Sun
I Had To Tell Them
I Ain't Second To None
And I Told About Equality
An It's True
Either You're Wrong
Or You're Right
Aooo
But, If
You're Thinkin'
About My Baby
It Don't Matter If You're
Black Or White
Hee
Go, yeah
Hee, hee
I Am Tired Of This Devil
I Am Tired Of This Stuff
I Am Tired Of This Business
Sew When The
Going Gets Rough
I Ain't Scared Of
Your Brother
I Ain't Scared Of No Sheets
I Ain't Scare Of Nobody
Girl When The
Goin' Gets Mean
[L. T. B. Rap Performance]
Protection
For Gangs, Clubs
And Nations
Causing Grief In
Human Relations
It's A Turf War
On A Global Scale
I'd Rather Hear Both Sides
Of The Tale
See, It's Not About Races
Just Places
Faces
Where Your Blood
Comes From
Is Where Your Space Is
I've Seen The LIGHT
Get Duller
I'm Not Going To Spend
My Life Being A Color
[Michael Jackson]
Don't Tell Me You Agree With Me
When I Saw You Kicking Dirt In My Eye
Hee, hee
But, If
You're Thinkin' About My Baby
It Don't Matter If You're Black Or White
I Said If
You're Thinkin' Of
Being My Baby
It Don't Matter If You're Black Or White
I Said If
You're Thinkin' Of
Being My Brother
It Don't Matter If You're
Black Or White
No, no , alright
Ooh, Ooh
Alright
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Now
Alright , alright
Ooh, Ooh
Shamon
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Now
Alright
Ooh, Ooh
It's Black, It's White
It's Tough For You
To Get By
It's Black , It's White, Whoo
Ooh, Ooh
It's Black, It's White
It's Tough For You
To Get By
It's Black , It's White, Whoo