Re: Jermaine talks about Michael, allegations, humanitarianism, J5, & Joe's beatings - New interview
This topic has come up again, and again. Usually the "pro-Joseph" argument goes, "It's cultural." And, "that was a different era." And, "he kept them out of gangs." And so on. There is a standard of behavior that transcends culture or context, and Joseph violated that. And, I hardly think that beating Michael as a small child, had anything to do with "keeping him out of gangs." Joseph beat his sons because of MISTAKES in rehearsals. Michael himself said that they used to practice while Joseph stood there with a belt in his hands. That is not "cultural." It's ABUSE. Violence toward children makes them MORE prone to violence as adults, not less. Michael was able to break that vicious cycle, and it looks like his brothers were not, and they now feel the need to justify their own behavior.
I believe MICHAEL, not what anyone else in that family-in-denial has to say. Joe could have been sent to JAIL for what he did to Michael! Assault is assault, all the worse when a child is the victim. Violence breeds more violence, in a vicious cycle, as we can see in the way some of the brothers have parented their own children.
Oiling and whipping a child is an atrocity, and there is no possible excuse for that. A sock filled with wet sand? Throwing a child against a wall? That is ASSAULT, against an innocent victim. I think that Joseph not wanting his children to call him "father" is indicative of his own view of his children -- as possessions -- as a means to wealth, but not as actual people related to him in any emotional way. Depersonalizing their relationship just made it easier for him to abuse them, in his mind?
Now, the family says "there were spankings." NO. Those were not "spankings." That was severe child-abuse, that could have/should have been prosecuted. Even back then, in that "era," it crossed the line, badly. And, Katherine, too, is complicit. Her responsibility was FIRST for the safety of her children, and in that she failed.
There is NO excuse at all, for what Joseph did to Michael.
