Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Critical Commons

Sections
Personal tools

Clip Library

Panther morph sequence from Michael Jackson video

No audio commentary available.
from Black or White (1991)
Created by John Landis / Michael Jackson
Posted bySteve Anderson

The panther morph and window smashing scene from Michael Jackson's Black or White music video

Clip Options

Sign in or Register to access additional options for this clip; registered users can upload new clips and add their own commentaries.
Flag as inappropriate

Text Commentaries on this Clip

Morph sequences from Black or White music video

by Steve Anderson

Two sequences from Michael Jackson's Black or White music video illustrate the video's ambiguous racial politics

The music video for Michael Jackson's Black or White included two remarkable scenes that explicitly address  issues of race and sexuality. First is a morph sequence in which lip-synching actors of various races and genders morph into each other, echoing the color-blind and gender-neutral politics of the song. The video was deemed too controversial for prime-time broadcast not because of this sequence but because of the next scene in which Jackson smashes windows painted with racist epithets and makes sexually suggestive gestures. These two scenes in juxtaposition offer a glimpse of the ambiguous racial politics of Jackson's work, exemplifying the two extremes of populist assimilationism in the morph sequence and the overt anger and aggression of the window-smashing sequence. This final scene is also bookended by Jackson himself morphing in and out of the figure of a black panther.

Copyright 2010, by the Contributing Authors. Cite/attribute Resource. ironman28. (2009, December 22). Morph sequences from Black or White music video. Retrieved March 10, 2010, from Critical Commons Web site: http://criticalcommons.org/Members/ironman28/commentaries/identity-morph-sequence-from-black-or-white-music-video. This work is licensed under a No Copyright; No Rights Reserved.