That Time Janet Jackson Fought For Her Life Against White Supremacy

Les Moonves Sought To Derail the Queen of Pop’s Career, Justin Timberlake Chose To Stay Silent

On February 1, 2004 — sixteen years ago today — Janet Jackson played the halftime show at the Super Bowl. We know the basis of the story. I feel uneasy about using terms like “Nipplegate,” “her right breast,” “Tittygate,” etc. because it feels like pedestrian scuttlebutt. It’s a cliché. I don’t want to disrespect Janet Jackson in the slightest. Please, dear reader, don’t read my words that way. Take what you will from my views but understand my intentions. If I only covered it on the surface, I’d have nothing new to offer. While I’ll touch on the moral debate of exposing a breast, this article is about much more. I’m going to a part of the story no one seems to address. I’m going to talk about what really went on behind the scenes starting the minute the halftime show ended. And not in the “she left, he said this, she did that” gossip way. This is important. I’m going to show you how institutionalized white supremacy affects even those in the entertainment industry where most people think of celebrities as untouchable by common folk’s problems. I’ll explain how the issue of white supremacy is common for everyone.

Unequivocally, I will state that the ascribed “wardrobe malfunction” was a mistake. There is zero evidence on either Janet or Justin’s part that such stunts have ever been on their agendas to capture the attention of the press for any reason. Janet, while posing in sexy attire, has never exposed her full breasts (e.g., nipples) or anything below the belt for the sake of a publicity stunt (lookin’ at you, Lil’ Kim). It’s not in her wheelhouse. Promotional material is different from executing a stunt. Promotional items like photos, imagery, and so on create a nuance to a project. Colors, fonts, statements elicit emotional responses. Promotion draws us to specific television shows, movies, or record albums from a billboard ad or a spread in a magazine.

Janet’s sultry photos of the past are an illusion of nudity. It’s a fantasy. She’s never just flopped out her breast to say, “hey y’all, here I am. And here‘re the twins!” She’s never pulled stunts like that. She’s never taken a queue from Jackass to promote a record. Other artists may feel that their material or career isn’t worth its weight, so they have to do something outrageous to get attention like exposing themselves under the guise of “I’m grown, look at me. I’m an adult.” But when you’re a confident, grown-ass adult and know who you are, you can do it without the desperation factor. Janet has never been desperate for career attention.

In 2004, Janet didn’t have a record out to promote. Damita Jo, her eighth studio album, wouldn’t be released for another two months after the halftime show. She was still in the studio, working. The songs she sang in the halftime show were at least three years old or more (“Rhythm Nation,” “The Knowledge,” and “All For You”). There was no need for a stunt to get a spotlight on her. She’s a well established professional, multi-million selling artist with a bank account that says, “Girl, you ain’t got to do shit if you don’t want.” Timberlake has never pulled a stunt either. But we’ll get to that.

There were daily reports of FCC fines, MTV-this, or CBS-that in the news. Every person with vocal cords seemed to have something to say about something that had nothing to do with them. With the level of backlash against the incident, Janet could have pushed the release of Damita Jo back six months or a year to avoid marring the album’s promotion campaign. She could’ve also opted to scrap the project altogether. I won’t delve further into the motivation behind what happened or the timing of Damita Jo. I stand firm on the body exposure being an embarrassing accident.

The part of the fallout that no one seems to talk about is how white supremacy played a considerable role in the blacklisting of Janet Jackson after the 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Show. It was a conservative-centric era, with George W. Bush in office. Because of the 9/11 attacks three years prior, the country was still very patriotic. Bush’s pseudo “war on terror” was in full swing. Detractors were also criticizing it. But there were plenty who approved of his wartime policies. Anyone who dared to challenge U.S. foreign policy was deemed anti-American, and a filthy commie. Muslim Americans suffered harsh backlash because their religion was exploited and perverted by the hijackers for their violent cause. The hijacker’s faith was arbitrary, at best. No Muslims were dancing on the roofs of buildings in New York, as the current administration would gaslight people into believing. Muslim Americans were still Americans and were just as horrified by 9/11 as any other citizen. Go back a few years, and I don’t remember a backlash against agnostics or Irish Catholics after Timothy McVeigh blew up a building in my hometown of Oklahoma City. Hmm, choices.

Back on track…

People typically saw the halftime show as an excuse to take a pee break, stretch your legs, and get fresh snacks for the second half of the game. It wasn’t a marketable event. The halftime show needed a boost of star power. Once they booked Michael Jackson, all bets were off. He not only put on a dazzling display, but he also legitimized the gig. Entities like MTV, Radio City Music Hall, House of Blues, Disney, MTV, and Clear Channel became involved in the production. Big named music acts saw the appeal of broad exposure and opened themselves to performing at the game. Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Patti LaBelle, Nsync, Nelly, Kid Rock, Mary J. Blige, Madonna, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, Stevie Wonder, Toni Braxton, Christina Aguilera, Phil Collins, Sting, Shania Twain, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lenny Kravtiz, Missy Elliott… the list seemed endless. Even Prince couldn’t resist the call, playing in 2007 in the pouring rain with a smile on his face and a palpable air of gratitude emanating from his soul. Gone were the halftime shows featuring only marching bands, ice skaters, or old Hollywood actors like Mickey Rooney. The idea of Janet and Justin playing together felt right. They were young, fresh-faced (which is saying something since Janet is fifteen years Justin’s senior), relevant, and had the entertainment clout to pull it off. What did get pulled off was something unexpected.

After Justin ripped off Janet’s bra and exposed her breast, the world lost its mind. Janet did, too. In videos of the show uploaded by people in the audience, we can see Janet gasping in shock, turning around and cowering away from the audience to hide her exposed body. She seemed to glance up to Timberlake for an answer. “Why?” But Timberlake stood there, not moving or reacting. Was he in shock, or was he enjoying the view? Perhaps he didn’t care. Within hours, Janet’s people — at the urging of CBS — pushed her to film an apology video. Janet asked, “What am I apologizing for?” She later said, “It was an accident. Management that I had at the time thought it was important that I [make the video].” If it was a mistake, why didn’t people see it like that? Logically speaking, if it wasn’t a mistake, it defies sensibility that she immediately covered her breast once she realized she was exposed. If she wanted her breast exposed, why not just own it? And why was the public so quick to assume innocence on Justin’s part and guilt on Janet’s part? Was a black woman’s breast going to scar the world emotionally? Sure, kids were watching. But not even two-seconds of a boob is going to throw the nation’s children into the throat of immorality and gullet of sexual corruption before class on Monday. While no one, least of all Janet, planned on seeing a bare breast in the halftime show, it wasn’t the worst thing that happened. The level of balk at the incident far outweighed the act itself.

The White Supremacy Visuals of the Amber Guyger Trial

Then-president George Bush and his wife Laura commented on the incident, saying there was no place in America for such sexual frivolities on television. Imagine their horror once Oz, Sex and the City, or Queer As Folk landed on cable television. Oh wait, they already had. Were these people living in a box? It wasn’t 1904, where even a woman’s ankle was considered scandalous. It was 2004. Women had been burning their bras for the past fifty years, and now the Bush’s want to act like a boob is some terrible thing? Bush’s comments were calculated and purposeful. While he could’ve been pushed into commenting by the press, I think, had the media not been near him around that time that he wouldn’t have said anything at all. He couldn’t endorse the boob, but he wasn’t standing down from attacking it either when confronted.

During this period in the United States, a conservative president speaking against a black woman’s breast galvanized white Americans. Bush’s approval rating was at an all-time low, so speaking out on morality and decency ingratiated some of his lost followers back into the fold. He may have been murdering brown people across the pond, but at least he was morally upright at home. Bush may not be a purposeful racist, but his comments about a black woman and her body resonated with white supremacists and the conservative base across the land.

In an ironic twist, the halftime show focused on the Choose or Lose voting campaign that set to encourage people to register to vote. It was also a presidential election year, and Dubya was running for a second term, so his “media decency” statements resonated with American voters. He appealed to those who were offended by a breast and hoped they would click his name at the voting booth in November. He parlayed Janet and Justin’s mishap into votes. Bush has Janet’s right breast to thank for his re-election since no one was buying his “war on the axis of evil” bullshit anymore.

The halftime show, set in Houston’s Reliant Stadium, also included short performances by P. Diddy, Nelly, and Kid Rock, all of whom felt like a musical commercial break. The audience just wanted to see Janet. She delivered. It was a surprise when Justin ascended to the stage for the “Rock Your Body” duet. The show was broadcast on CBS, which is a Viacom company. Another Viacom company, MTV, produced the show. It was sponsored by AOL-Top Speed.

After the show, the head of CBS — Leslie Moonves — was infuriated. In what can be viewed as the germination of cancel culture, Moonves ordered all CBS and Viacom properties to stop playing Janet Jackson’s music. The blacklisting campaign included MTV and VH1, which still occasionally played music videos, and hosted music shows like Total Request Live (TRL). The shutdown also included CBS’s radio station group Infinity Broadcasting. Moonves’s media blackout went front to back, top to bottom. The NFL banned MTV from producing any future halftime shows, and the FCC fined CBS $550,000. As the backlash continued to build, Janet remained mostly blind to it. People around her kept her informed, but she noted that she was trying to finish an album with no definite launch date. She was in the studio working, doing her job. While the public was balls deep in Janet’s chest, Janet was preoccupied with finishing what would become Damita Jo. However, it’s reported she did consider writing a song about the incident but chose (wisely, in my opinion) to forego that idea.

In 2004, the 46th Annual Grammy Awards was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. No surprise, the Grammys are aired on CBS (and have been since 1973). She was encouraged to bow out gracefully from showing up or have her invitation revoked. In the end, Janet Jackson was uninvited from even showing up at the Staples Center to attend the Grammy ceremony. It’s billed as music’s biggest night, yet one of the most successful female artists was refused entry. In high contrast, Justin Timberlake’s invitation was concrete. He was asked to perform for the broadcast, which he did with a host of singers. During an acceptance speech, Timberlake made a halfwit apology for the incident, “I know it’s been a rough week on everybody. What occurred was unintentional, completely regrettable, and I apologize if you guys are offended.” It’s more interesting what he didn’t say. He never mentioned anything about Janet’s blacklisting or the fact that she wasn’t at the award ceremony, more specifically that her invitation was rescinded. So who was having the rougher week? Everybody, or Janet? Timberlake’s white boy statement was a crucial moment. It showed us what white privilege looked like. He wanted to calm everybody down. I guess that included Janet, right?

Gabrielle Union and the Radicalization of Black Women

A white man and a black woman performed together on a worldwide stage. The white man inadvertently exposed a portion of the black woman’s body. Her body was radicalized and criminalized. White supremacy seeks to radicalize people of color for just existing. Someone being black is a radical idea for many white people. Black people are scary, criminals, “up to no good.” Laws are made to criminalize people of color, meaning black people can barely cross the street before they have broken six rules. It becomes enough to incarcerate them. It’s a system formed to make people of color into a criminal. It’s also why the overwhelming majority of prisoners in the United States are people of color. They suffer harsher sentences for lesser crimes than those of their white counterparts. White people’s sins are excused as “but he’s a good kid, and he said he was sorry,” or “this is her first offense, let’s not ruin her life.” It’s a race apology. In the same stroke of a judge’s pen, it’s without pause that a teenage black boy is sent to prison for ten years for a similar offense of a white boy sent home on probation for a year.

People are more focused on decriminalizing marijuana than stopping the systemic oppression of people of color. The proof is a white man playing a more significant role in an incident (Janet didn’t rip the costume off her body, Timberlake did, and even Janet’s parents noted that in an interview) where the black woman suffered the consequences. The incident seemed to inflame white supremacists and conservatives. Did anyone ever blame Timberlake for being heavy-handed? Did someone ask him why he was so grabby with the bra? Dude has no skills with women.

Leslie Moonves, who is steeped in the corporate racism of the entertainment industry, viewed Janet as the root of his problems with the public’s view of CBS and the FCC’s incoming fines. He blamed Janet for the planned wardrobe reveal and wanted to obliterate her career and livelihood. Even MTV’s CEO Tom Freston blamed Janet for the alleged orchestrated stunt. MTV producers for the event defended the incident saying they came up with the idea, but that nudity wasn’t part of it. Moonves saw Timberlake’s white face and excused any action on his part because “he seemed apologetic enough.” I don’t remember Timberlake being forced to issue any sort of apology video twenty-four hours after it happened. His first statement to the press immediately following the incident was, “We love giving you all something to talk about.” He later issued an apology. His appearance and performance at the Grammys a month later served as vindication for his part in the incident. The span between the occurrence and the Grammys gave Timberlake plenty of time to say something about it in Janet’s defense. What he did say was, “If you consider it 50–50, then I probably got 10% of the blame. I think America is harsher on women. I think America is unfairly harsh on ethnic people.” Ethnic people? Did I miss where Janet’s birth certificate lists her place of birth as Kenya? The worst part is that overall he stayed silent. It was apparent that he wasn’t as well versed in the struggles of women of color in this country as he thought he was. To further highlight his blind spot on race, he said, “I looked at her. They brought a towel up on stage. They covered her up. I was completely embarrassed and just walked off the stage as quickly as I could. I’m frustrated at the whole situation. I’m frustrated that my character is being questioned.” Timberlake’s white fragility flexed to worry about his character being examined under harsh lights and not the attacks on the main reason he was at the halftime show: Janet Jackson. He was embarrassed, but didn’t consider “I can’t imagine what Janet felt in that moment.” He centered the attention on himself and his feelings. She didn’t unzip his pants to let his dick flop out. Timberlake whitewashes any spears lobbed at Janet and proverbially threw his hands up in white frustration. “I’m just frustrated at the whole situation.” It’s a blanketed move that attempts to cover everything, sidestep responsibility, and addresses nothing. Rapper and actor Common challenged Timberlake’s hobbling actions in Jadakiss’s “Why?” remix in 2004, asking, “Why did Justin sell Janet out and go to the Grammys?”

Grouping white women into the racist struggle that women of color face in the United States whitewashes their problem and minimizes the challenges they face. It unfairly moves the needle in favor of white women’s challenges being just as difficult as women of color and assumes women of color face no more considerable obstacles. It’s simply untrue. Black women are seen as the bottom of the proverbial pecking order or totem pole in society. It’s a blindspot people of color know every day, but white people see as “too extreme” to consider. “Why are you always bringing up race? I don’t see color. I only see people.” It gentrifies women of color’s struggles and dismisses their pain. Timberlake is white, so he was already excused from any wrongdoing, whether intentional or accidental. He was given the benefit of the doubt. White people are good, don’t we know that? It’s the blacks who harbor ill-intent. (Queue eye roll.) Timberlake knew he didn’t have to say anything, which is why his Grammy apology felt lighter than air and just as thin. He said what he said for the sake of saying it, not because he meant or believed it. But don’t get me wrong. He believed he was frustrated and mad that people were questioning him. His white privilege always keeps the spotlight on his issues as a white man. He rested in his white privilege while Leslie Moonves and CBS made Janet film her public apology video. Timberlake was consoled, frustrated in his whiteness that he was being questioned. He stood silent as Moonves dragged Janet to the proverbial town square, made her repent for something that wasn’t her fault, and flogged her in public. What’s the saying, “when you see someone oppressed and say nothing, you take the side of the oppressor.”

Moonves and his white supremacy were enraged again in 2011, when Janet published her book, True You, through Simon & Schuster, a CBS property.
“How did she get by us,” Moonves vented.
The book shot to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list, a feat which would be seen as an unintentional snub to Moonves. Fans showed up in throngs (including myself) for book signings. I have to believe it irritated Moonves to his racist core that a black woman was getting one over on him, even if she didn’t set out to do it. Living a better life is always the best revenge, they say.

Janet’s Damita Jo suffered from a lack of promotion because of the blackout. To that date, it was her worst-selling album, although critics gave it high marks. The album subsequently garnered more sales, but later albums suffered a consistent decline as Moonves’s onslaught of racist propaganda continued. Damita Jo received platinum status, garnered #1 singles, won awards from American Music Awards, NAACP, Soul Train, Source, and VH1. Fans were still there to support her. And while she made the rounds on talk shows and award ceremonies, all the public remembered was the boob. They don’t remember Bush being a boob, Moonves being a boob, or Timberlake being the biggest boob. Nope, just a breast is what stood between Janet and having a career. She was later nominated for two Grammy awards in 2005, related to Damita Jo.

It’s essential to consider the visual queues of Damita Jo. On the cover, she was topless, turned sideways, her jeans barely peeking over the bottom edge of the photograph, her arms covering her breasts, and her signature smile spread across her face. It was playful, yet provocative. Inside photos had her with an open white shirt on and no bra underneath. In another photo, we find Janet with her jeans unbuttoned, which harkens back to the janet. album cover in 1993 (her most recognizable, by far; and the photo was also on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine). She told Jay Leno that the white gauzy sheath wrapped around her was made of paper, to which Leno replied, “let’s pray for rain.” But her sensual pose and wanting gaze weren’t sexually provocative as much as they were a political and social statement. She stood there, exposed yet covered, standing up and not lying down, looking the public directly in the eye. The photographs were a not-so-subtle middle finger to a public opinion that continued to call her for utter destruction. She maintained her power as a black woman. She owned her femininity and sexuality. If anyone was going to use her body to make a statement, it was Janet. (The latter photo of her wrapped in paper fabric was also used as the cover for a video compilation DVD. She wasn’t backing down.)

Damita Jo — Janet (2004)

If the Damita Jo album cover alone was any indication, the blackout wasn’t going to bring Janet down. Being a black woman, she’s faced this nonsense her whole life. On her 1993 janet. album, she sings, “Because of my gender, I’ve heard no too many times. Because of my race, I’ve heard no too many times.” This incident may have been a bit bigger, but the elements were the same. To a black woman, it was just another day in a white man’s world. Timberlake may have glazed over the issues of gender and race, but it was Janet and women like her who were living it. Justin’s only intersectionality was being from Tennessee and living in Los Angeles. Black women intersect on gender and race first. Despite the blackout and some limited exposure, Janet was booked on other shows including Ryan Seacrest’s short-lived television show, On-Air with Ryan Seacrest, Good Morning America, The Teen-Choice Awards, The Tonight Show, Much Music’s Much on Demand, Top of the Pops, The Late Show with David Letterman (a CBS show), the annual Wango Tango concert, and the 32nd Annual American Music Awards. She even appeared on Saturday Night Live as host and musical guest to make fun of the hoopla. It’s clear that Moonves’s racist attack on Jackson didn’t reach every outlet, nor did it have the eternal and destructive impact he desired.

Janet’s appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show two years later would be the first and last time she chose to speak on the subject. “There was so much more going on in the world that was so much more important. I couldn’t believe they put so much emphasis on it. A real embarrassing moment.” Winfrey asked if Janet felt, “Justin left you hanging out there.” Janet replied, “all the emphasis was put on me, not Justin. We were friends. I haven’t spoken to him, but I consider him a friend. I’m very loyal, and friendship is very important to me. Certain things you just don’t do to friends.” She clarified that Justin’s words are what hurt her most and that she did feel “to a certain degree” he left her hanging after the incident. In Rolling Stones, columnist Rob Sheffield said, “Justin isn’t exactly Mr. Loyalty — he totally left Janet Jackson to take the heat after the Super Bowl.” Other media outlets blasted Timberlake’s spineless fleeing from the controversy, one calling him “pathetically typical.” As Janet sat on Oprah’s couch and told her story, or performed on other broadcasts with fans cheering and screaming for her, I hope Moonves seethed in anger watching it. I hope her appearing on television promoting an album he wishes never existed by a black female artist he hated to the core bruised his white supremacy ego and wounded his blackened soul.

A decade and a half later, this situation still needs to be addressed because it’s not about Janet. This particular halftime show wasn’t a stand-out moment in white supremacist history. The malfunction did not occur in a vacuum, nor is it unique unto itself. The difference is it happened in a national spotlight with a celebrity. Moonves’s particular kind of racism isn’t unusual to people of color. His brand of picking out women of color for abuse is something white men have been doing since slavery (looking at you, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson). The entertainment industry whitewashes race while also highlighting the achievements of white people. A black person could double the sales of a white artist, but the white artist gets the bigger tour and more significant promotional backing. Black music is seen as a secondary niche market. Yet it was Elvis Presley who appropriated black music for a white audience. The music industry forms contracts and agreements that keep artists, including those of color, in perpetual servitude to the record company. They’re offered less and expected to pay back more. Even Berry Gordy, a black man, knew the power of a contract to keep people locked to indentured servitude. It took Diana Ross years to get out of her Motown contract. Prince compared contracts to slavery, and few black people in the industry disagreed. Moonves wanted Jackson back in the fields to work her way back into the house; (read: into a white man’s favor). But Ms. Jackson, nor any black woman, is here to audition for the role of Stephen in Django Unchained.

It’s typical for black women to be passed over for jobs and promotions in favor of a white and often less-qualified person. Black women are expected to work twice as hard for half the pay. They’re dragged out to be reprimanded or used as some racial sounding board. They’re to be radicalized then made an example of. Black folks aren’t here for that. Black folks didn’t create white supremacy, nor is it their job to dismantle it. People like Leslie Moonves are part of the problem of how white supremacy is perpetrated against people of color in entertainment while excusing the wrongdoings by white entertainers. Janet Jackson became the visual aid for what black people shouldn’t ever do — make a mistake in front of white folks. “See, told ya!” It’s no surprise that every media outlet became scared of all things Janet because Moonves and CBS made her a target. Moonves labeled her as radical and a problem. No media outlet or large corporation wants anything to do with something or someone labeled problematic.

The irony isn’t lost since most corporate structures are embedded with racism and are part of institutionalized white supremacy. Racism is radical, yet corporations want to appear neutral through their inclusionary and tolerance programs. Those programs are typically built with racist intent. How does that work? They stay white-people-neutral or pro-white. They lump everyone in together (like Justin did), and the weight of a person of color’s experience and existence isn’t weighed into the rules (like Janet’s), nor is a white person’s because being white isn’t radicalized. If being white has worked so well for the white people making rules, then it should work for everyone despite their color. Those programs ignore the struggles of people of color and expect them to be treated the same as white people when those same white people refuse to acknowledge any difference whatsoever in life experiences of people of color. “I’m just frustrated at the whole situation.” That’s what we called institutionalized white supremacy. It’s racism built into the systems of corporations, government, and the judicial system. Moonves was playing by rules that had always worked for him and existed before he arrived at CBS. It’s why the black woman was forced into a public apology. Janet was just another black bitch that he could crush if he didn’t like something she did. Forget her humanity, her soul, her friends, her livelihood; a white man is frustrated/offended! How dare she!

Winter Dinner Party: Fictional Character Guest List

Janet spoke to the uproar in Blender Magazine. She said the quasi-outrage “is hypocritical, with everything you see on T.V. There are more important things to focus on than a woman’s body part, which is a beautiful thing. There’s war, famine, homelessness, AIDS.” Since 2004 was an election year, she noted it “did have a great deal to do with it. They needed something to focus on instead of the war, and I was the perfect vehicle for that. People are going to think what they want. It was an accident. It was not a stunt. That was embarrassing for me to have all those people see my breast. That’s like having your penis hanging out in front of millions and millions of people.” She balanced her ire with a positive view of things to come. In a 2004 USA Today interview she said, “Who knows, maybe they’ll get mad at something that I do in my show, but at least it won’t be new to me since I’ve already gone through all of this. But I feel very positive that things are going to work out just fine. Everything happens for a reason.” She later said to Winfrey, “I wish it would have never happened. It’s unfortunate, but what can you do?”

In 2019, Leslie Moonves stepped down as head of CBS because allegations of sexual misconduct had been leveled against him. He kept his golden parachute retirement. He also kept his Chinese wife, Julie Chen, who changed her on-air moniker to Julie Chen Moonves in a show of solidarity with her husband. Amid her husband’s #MeToo battles, Chen quit her role as moderator on CBS’s The Talk, likely to avoid questioning by her costars about her husband’s misdeeds. Critics and fans called her sudden departure as cowardly, this writer included. Chen’s grandfather was a polygamist with nine wives and eleven children. Perhaps the sexual improprieties of the men around her seemed natural and forgivable, and that women of color deserve less. Moonves denies all allegations of sexual impropriety, and — if asked — would deny any claims of racism when targeting Janet Jackson after the Super Bowl in 2004 and excusing Justin Timberlake because he “seems very apologetic.” Moonves became the new boob flopping out in the public eye with Timberlake sucking on the teet of white privilege. Timberlake’s album Justified was released on Jive Records, which was part of the RCA Music Group. RCA was distributed by Sony Entertainment, which is part of CBS. So it’s no surprise that Timberlake got the get-out-of-jail-free card. Moonves saw him as an asset. But the black woman was disposable.

Janet recovered. She staged four tours, released three more albums (all of which went to number one without a stunt), acted in movies, headlined a sold-out residency in Las Vegas, got married and divorced, had a child at fifty, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You know, just regular stuff.

In 2014 when asked about what he’s learned from the incident, his management signaled the end of the interview, with Justin adding, “I take that I chose not to comment on it still, after ten years. I’m not touching that thing with a ten-foot pole.” Timberlake played the Super Bowl, as part of Nsync, in 2001 (with Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Nelly and Mary J. Blige), with Janet in 2004. He was invited back again as a solo act in 2018. To date, Janet hasn’t been invited back, although rumors and fan-wishes of her return in 2018 with Justin were quickly shut down by Janet herself. Timberlake, who was part of the same controversy centered around a black woman’s body, has played a total of three halftime shows. The NFL doesn’t see Timberlake as a threat, radical, or a problem. (Of course, they also do little when one of their players is known to be a drug addict, alcoholic, wife abuser, or rapist. So the question of good judgment arises.) Leslie Moonves’s racist venom targeted Janet, but Timberlake’s feet were never held to the fire. If that’s not white supremacy, I don’t know what is. It’s with great purpose, for now, I’ve avoided the nuances of modern-day slavery in the NFL, where plantations have been replaced with football fields, and players are traded like slaves by owners, based on who can perform better. Nope, that’s another article.

I need to note a few intriguing outcomes from the incident. USA Today reports that jewelry stores and piercing studios saw a significant increase in customer’s interest in silver sunburst-shaped nipple shields. Janet’s song, “Just A Little While,” was rushed to airplay by many radio stations (obviously not Infinity Broadcasting stations). It was Tivo’s most-watched, recorded, and replayed moment to that point, which had the service signing 35,000 new customers. “Wardrobe malfunction” was added to Webster’s English Dictionary in 2008. Jawid Karim, one of YouTube’s founders, said he was so frustrated trying to find the video clip online that he and his friends created YouTube as a place to upload videos for the public. YouTube launched February 2005, almost a year to the day of the halftime show. Facebook moved up its launch to the public three days after the incident, possibly to capitalize on the publicity through social networking. In the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records, the incident was listed as Most Searched in Internet History” and the “Most Searched for News Item.” The incident was also the “most searched event over one day.” Janet Jackson was the person most searched for in 2004 and 2005. George Bush piggy-backed from the incident by peppering ideas of “moral values” and “media decency” into his campaign. He won the election. These are legacies Janet has no interest in displaying with pride.

If everything happens for a reason, then I hope Janet’s trails with public opinion and white supremacy showed how damaging racism is to the world; that racists attitudes like those of Leslie Moonves are morally corrupt, and to passively participate in it like Justin Timberlake is reprehensible. It should show that white supremacy and racist propaganda seeks to silence people of color. It should show that no one is above the scrutiny and near-obsessive destructive path of white supremacists, whether they’re CEOs, a pop singer, or a gas station attendant. The lesson of not radicalizing a woman’s body is not yet learned. Self-autonomy seems to only apply to white men who consistently take a hands-off “not my business” approach to the same issues that can, and do, oppress people of color. It should show that if anyone sees these sorts of practices happening and doesn’t speak up about them and confront them, then they passively become part of the problem. The last thing we need is one more fucking racist quietly sitting in their cubicle at work, collecting three times as much money as the black woman next to them doing the same job. The United States owes women of color an apology.

I see no better place to start that conversation than with Janet Jackson.

“You want to know what it takes to rid yourself of me now
There’s nothing you can do”

Ernest Sewell was born & raised in Oklahoma. After living across the U.S. in places like Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis, he’s settled in upstate New York for the past twenty years. He’s authored and published two books and is working on a smattering of new material, including a new horror novel. He shares his home with a friend, three cats, and his vinyl collection, all of whom have the same level of love from him. When he’s not causing an uproar on Prince forums or social media, he enjoys reads (a lot), trying new recipes, and prank calling people.

“Don’t take yourself too seriously. No one else does.”