No matter how mainstream media implies Joe Jackson should be ostracized from “proper society”, actions of the family continually contradict that view. While a large percentage of the American population scorns “Papa Joe”, not so among the Jacksons. Mainstream media’s publics’ rile has been up since Joe Jackson sought a $15,000 a month allowance from Michael’s estate. Should Joseph Walter Jackson be bestowed $180,000 per annum from Michael Jackson’s estate? Should Papa Joe be viewed as a rouge, or role-model?
Based on traditional American values, Joe Jackson is an African-American “role-model”. Now, a father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Joe Jackson is the root of his family’s successes. During the Thanksgiving holiday period Papa Joe hosted third son Jermaine, and his brood, and Michael’s children Prince, 12, Paris, 11, Blanket, 7, and ‘secret son’ Omer Bhatti at his Las Vegas ranch. This gathering contrasted with the public’s opinion and ridicule that Joe Jackson is not entitled to a stipend from the estate of his seventh child.
Symbolically, you could say that: From this tree grew mighty oaks. Born in Arkansas in 1929, Joe married Katherine Scruse in Gary, Indiana in 1949 and maintained his family by working as a crane operator at Gary’s U.S. Steel Company. In the mid-1950s, Joe embarked on a music career with his brother Luther, playing guitar in a band called The Falcons. The Falcons never got a record deal, causing Joe to return to U.S. Steel full-time after a couple of years hiatus.
Like the fathers of Andy Williams and the Williams Brothers, Donnie Osmond and the Osmond Family, it was the family patriarch’s tenacity and determination behind their children’s’, and subsequent generations’, overwhelming successes. During the early 1960s, Joe Jackson worked two jobs to support six boys and three girls. Michael was born in 1958, but by 1964 Joseph had discovered that the three eldest sons, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine, had musical talent. Seeing that budding talent, Joe helped form an early incarnation of The Jackson 5 with two neighborhood youths, though eventually Marlon and Michael formed the Jackson 5. It was under Joe’s strict leadership that the Jackson 5 polished their talents. In 1967, they turned professional, and the group signed with Motown Records in 1968. Much of the public’s perception of him is based on the decline in Joe’s managerial role when Motown CEO Berry Gordy took personal charge of the Jacksons’ act.
Rouge you say? All too often Michael Joseph Jackson’s success is chronicled separate of Papa Joe. All the family attributes Michael’s accomplishments directly to Papa Joe. The estate has an estimated worth of $2.5 billion. It controls billions in assets, future royalties on music rights, real estate and other holdings. It holds the lucrative Sony/ATV catalog – which contains 250 Beatles songs, music from Elvis Pressley and Little Richard. He still co-owned Neverland Ranch and surrounding 2,600 acres in pristine Santa Barbara County. Michael’s MiJack music catalog is a valuable commodity. Since death, Michael’s earning power increased. Albums that he’d previously released have gained new life and racked up 4 million new sales.
Michael had honored his father with an annual "Joseph Jackson Day" at Neverland Ranch. Joe Jackson represents a father and authority figure most African American families never know. In the eyes of the Jackson Family, if anyone deserves an income from the labors of Michael Jackson, it should be Papa Joe. Now 81, Joe suffers from diabetes and contends that he was supported by Michael before his death through payments that were made to Katherine Jackson and was passed on to him. Joe’s expenses exceed $20,000 per month; his income from Social Security is $1,700.
Mrs. Jackson’s income from the estate is four times what Joe’s requesting. For her support, and that of Michael’s three publicly-known children, Katherine Jackson, 79, receives $86,000 a month. Katherine supports her husband’s request for a monthly allowance. Jermaine Jackson says it’s ridiculous that his father even had to ask for payments in the first place and states: "The fact is my father is the estate. He created it."
(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)
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