Michael Jackson’s nephew, Taj Jackson, is speaking out against Chris Rock on the heels of his recent Netflix special, and he’s specifically accusing the comedian of launching “decades of harassment” against the family.
Taj’s issue stems from a comment Chris made when explaining the title of his show, which is titled Chris Rock: Selective Outrage.
While addressing his audience, Chris proclaimed, “The thing I have a problem with is the selective outrage.”
The Madagascar voice actor went on to explain what he meant by this term, noting that it’s when people give one person a “pass” for something that they condemned someone else for.
He then offered an example, noting that the term applied to “the kind of person who plays Michael Jackson songs but won’t play R. Kelly.”
Chris went on to add, “Same crime—one of them just got better songs!”
We should point out that Michael Jackson was acquitted on child sexual abuse accusations back in 2005 while R. Kelly is currently incarcerated on sex trafficking and child pornography charges.
A couple of days after Chris Rock’s special, Taj Jackson took to Twitter to sound off.
He started off by noting, “Chris Rock has used my family as punching bags for his entire career. Yet I am supposed to feel bad for him getting slapped and humiliated [at] the Oscars.”
Taj added that, after seeing Chris attack Michael “in the first minutes of his ‘Retaliation—I’m still relevant’ special,” he has a few messages for the comedian.
He started off by asking Chris what the Jackson family had ever done to him “to warrant these decades of harassment.” Additionally, Taj told Chris, “Just because you were bullied early on in life doesn’t give you the excuse to bully others now.”
Lastly, he thanked Will Smith for slapping him at the Academy Awards last year.
Notably, Taj Jackson wasn’t the only one who was upset by Chris Rock’s comparing Michael to R. Kelly, as various people aired their grievances via social media.
Did Chris Rock go too far and make the Michael Jackson joke in poor taste, or do you think the critics are overreacting?
