ERASING THE COLOR LINE JACKSON TRIAL REACTIONS SHOW HOW UNIMPORTANT RACE HAS BECOME.

Byline: Joe R. Hicks Local View

AFTER being subjected to the lengthy trial of Michael Jackson, the former self-proclaimed ``King of Pop,'' many people reacted quite properly with disgust over the entire sordid affair that was as bizarre as it was incomprehensible. But if there is anything redeeming about the past 14 weeks of nonstop ugliness, it is this:

More important than the revolting elements of the trial - and its freaky central figure - is the extent to which Americans have moved away from viewing life through the prism of race.

Jackson's bizarre appearance and behavior have tended to blur any distinct racial identity on his part. In fact, Jackson's fame and celebrity - at least since the late 1980s - had been mostly devoid of distinct racial imagery. While his family provides a racial reference point, to most of his huge and increasingly international fan base, Jackson was simply a glittery, if eccentric, pop star.

Jackson has never been known for commenting on matters political or racial, which made his 2002 attack on Sony Music chief Tommy Motolla very peculiar. He called Motolla, the then-husband of pop diva Mariah Carey, ``racist'' and ``very, very, very devilish.'' Standing at his side as he made these strange comments, and looking appropriately embarrassed, was none other than the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Jackson's ``devilish'' comment may have been a precursor to another odd example of his dabbling in racial politics - his later involvement with the Nation of Islam, which provided him with security and ``advice'' during the early stages of his trial. Yet despite such gestures, Jackson remained and remains unconnected to any strong sense of racial identity in the public consciousness.

Nonetheless, a Gallup poll taken the morning after the verdict reflects the fact that race does, to some extent, shape people's perceptions of the trial. The poll found that while 75 percent of whites think that the charges against Jackson are ``definitely or probably true,'' only 49 percent of blacks think they are. A similar poll taken in 1995 discovered that 75 percent of whites thought that O.J. Simpson was probably guilty of killing his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman, but only 25 percent of blacks thought so.

There may be complex sociological explanations for this racial schism; nonetheless it comes at a time when most Americans are moving away from seeing things exclusively through racial lenses.

A poll commissioned by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the AARP, released in 2004, found considerable changes in white attitudes toward racial integration from earlier polls. Most whites polled favored integrated neighborhoods and workplaces, and 61 percent approved of interracial marriages. Only 4 percent approved of ``mixed'' marriages in the early 1960s. The poll found that 93 percent of whites now say they would vote for a black presidential candidate. In 1958, only one-third of whites said they would be willing to do so.

Yet among some the theme of racial victimization continues unabated. After Jackson was charged by Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas Sneddon, Jermaine Jackson, Michael's brother, argued that race lay behind the charges. Joe Jackson, Michael's father, said his son was the target of racism - with Sneddon portrayed as the primary culprit.

To his credit, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who said he regularly prayed with Michael (as he had done with Bill Clinton during his presidential ``crisis''), downplayed race as a factor in the trial. He said Jackson ``had not raised the issue of race.'' But this did not prevent other black activists from slinging those charges. John Hatcher, the president of the Ventura County branch of the NAACP, revved up a crowd of Jackson supporters at the courthouse by denouncing the jury's racial makeup (there were no blacks on the 12-person jury) and saying the system wants to ``take a black person down.''

All of this reveals the schizophrenic approaches to race in our society. As race continues to decline as a factor in human interactions, some try to maintain its influence. This is demonstrated by the infamous comments by the brilliant defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, who said during the O.J. Simpson case that ``Race plays a part of everything in America.''

One black writer, apparently frustrated that whites do not define Jackson in racial terms, argued that it is Jackson's nonthreatening, asexual image that makes him acceptable to whites. Except for those white Jackson fans who appear to be visiting from some other planet, exactly which whites find him acceptable? Such comments raise the hoary Jim Crow-era imagery of blacks as hyper-sexualized beings that oddly today is perpetuated not by whites, but by black gangster-rap ``artists.''

Most Americans, white, black or others, simply see Michael Jackson as ``weird'' - someone you wouldn't expose your child to under any circumstances. That's the universal reality that united most who watched the trial unfold, unable to turn away, as if they were watching a circus train that's just derailed.

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Photo:

(color) Michael Jackson waves to fans as he arrives at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse in Santa Maria on Monday.

Michael Mariant/Associated Press