Michael Jackson at a concert in 1986. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
Photo: WireImage, KMazur. All rights reserved.
Michael Jackson’s protest anthem “They Don’t Care About Us” is now part of the 1 billion views on YouTube club. The song was released as a single in 1996, taken from the ninth studio album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I.
The music video for the song is now the second Jackson work after “Billie Jean” to have more than a billion views on YouTube. The accompanying video was shot in Brazil by Spike Lee. The now 66-year-old American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor deals with socio-political issues in his films, especially racism towards the Afro-American population.
In “They Don’t Care About Us,” Jackson is shown marching through the streets of the Santa Marta favela in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador da Bahia with a large drum group of Brazilian children and youth. The making of the video was highly controversial at the time, as reported by Billboard, as the Brazilian government tried to ban Jackson from filming in both Rio de Janeiro and the historic center of the city of Salvador (Pelourinho). In addition, there were immense safety precautions, since the life of the superstar in the slum was feared. Jackson was accompanied musically by drummers from the Olodum formation.
“They Don’t Care About Us” attracted particular interest when it was used during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2014, 2015 and 2020. However, the lyrics were also criticized at the time for the use of the words “jew” and “kike” (a derogatory term for people of the Jewish faith). Jackson defended himself: These are slang words with which he holds up the mirror to ignorant people.