This rings true to me.

Actress: Michael Jackson’s glove was to hide skin problem – CNN.com
(CNN) — Michael Jackson’s single white glove was his trademark — an iconic image for a performer whose career constantly set, then redefined, pop culture trends.
Michael Jackson’s single glove, a trademark image, started as a way to hide his skin condition, friends say

But it also was an early effort to mask a skin condition that he would struggle with for the rest of his life, say some who were close to him.

I also suffer from Vitiligo, the disease that MJ was trying to hide. Mine is not bad (yet) but I have spots all over my body that have lost melanin and are pale patches. Luckily for me, I’m pretty pale naturally so it isn’t terribly obvious. I do have some spots on my hands. If I were a darker-skinned person, I might even be embarrassed by them, but since they are barely noticeable against my lily-white normal skin, I don’t even think about them.

Vitiligo can be pretty pervasive on a person. I’m lucky in that so far it’s still pretty sporadic and scattered on me.

Does this explain all the rumors of MJ trying to “turn white?” I dunno, but it’s plausible to me, based on my own experience, that much of the “bleaching” that MJ was accused of could easily be due to him trying to even out his skin tone, if not entirely due to Vitiligo itself.