Last week, the United States experienced four days of paralysis with the celebration, on Thursday, of Thanksgiving, a key holiday in the country that extended until Sunday. But if anyone can bring him out of his lethargy, it’s Beyoncé. On Saturday, all the spotlights were pointed towards the city of Los Angeles, which hosted the presentation of the documentary that the singer from Houston (Texas, 42 years old) made in connection with her tour Renaissance, which has taken her through Europe, the United States and Canada from May to October in a series of 56 spectacular concerts. Beyoncé herself was obviously the queen of the party, who was not lacking in friends, colleagues and family, such as her colleagues in the band Destiny’s Child Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, the actresses Issa Rae, Laverne Cox, Janelle Monae and Lupita Nyong’o, the model Winnie Harlow, Kris Jenner, the director Tyler Perry or Vanessa Bryant, Kobe Bryant’s widow, and her daughter Natalia. Her parents, Mathew and Tina Knowles, who, divorced since 2011 and after 29 years together, attended and posed separately on the red carpet, did not miss it either. And now it has been precisely Tina who has raised her voice in support of her daughter and in the wake of a viral controversy fueled by certain media about the color of Beyoncé’s skin.
With a silver curtain in the background, and with Afrofuturism as inspiration, the singer was seen on the red carpet in a silver dress, matching gloves and eye shadow of the same color, accompanied by long, very straight hair in the same color. platinum blonde. Silver was a constant on the red carpet of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, where the event took place, since thousands of her fans have come in that tone to fifty people. shows of Renaissance. That color, together with the whitish light of the spotlights and the extreme blonde of the hair, could give the appearance of a light skin tone, and many tabloids were quick to warn of a possible change or whitening, as well as show photos to demonstrate a supposed before and after of the artist who began to spread like wildfire on social networks.
But after so much fuss, it was Tina Knowles who said “enough.” This Tuesday, the singer’s mother published an extensive text on her Instagram profile, accompanied by an image of Beyoncé on the night of the premiere, and a video in which the artist is seen in various interviews, talks and installments of awards where, depending on the light, hair, clothing, shot and dozens of other variants, the Texan singer’s skin tone looks different. In the background, next to the video, the song plays Brown Skin Girl (Brown Skin Girl) by the singer, released in 2019.
“I came across this today and decided to write about it after seeing so many stupid, ignorant and hateful racist statements about her, lightening her skin and wearing platinum hair for wanting to be white. She has made a movie, called Renaissance, where the whole theme was silver, with platinum hair, a silver carpet and where silver clothing was suggested… and you idiots decide that she is trying to be a white woman and that she is bleaching her skin? How sad it is that some of her own people continue with that stupid narrative of hate and jealousy,” the artist’s mother, 69, begins in her text, facing her more than four million followers. Tina Knowles also accuses some American tabloids of trying to talk deceitfully with Neal Farinah, the artist’s hairdresser, and seeking statements from him implying that there were certain fans who said that Beyoncé was trying to be white.
But for Tina Knowles the “most disappointing” thing is that there are certain black people who also wanted to believe that version. “Yes, you idiots on social media, lying and pretending and acting like you’re ignorant and don’t understand that black women have had platinum hair since the days of Etta James. I’ve looked up all those beautiful and talented famous black women who have worn platinum hair and it’s been basically all of them, at one time or another. Are they trying to be black? Knowles argues. “I’m tired of everyone attacking her [a Beyoncé] Every time he does something for which he works non-stop and becomes a benchmark for work ethic, for talent, for resilience, here you are, sad little haters, emerging from nowhere. You perpetuate jealousy, racism, sexism, double standards, instead of celebrating your sister or simply ignoring her if you don’t like her. “I’m sick of you losers.”
In the writing, at no point does Knowles mention the name of his daughter. She is well aware that she is not going to like her words. “I know she’s going to be mad at me for doing this, but I’m sick of it. This girl mind her own business. She helps people whenever she can. She always uplifts and supports black women and the underdog.” There have been many, tens of thousands, responses received by the artist’s mother, among them from actresses such as Cynthia Erivo and Octavia Spencer, who affirms: “You have raised an intelligent, strong, beautiful woman, proud to be black.” , period. Anyone who says otherwise has her own problems to deal with.”
Since she began to be part of the entertainment industry, at just 15 years old, and at different times in her life as an artist, Beyoncé has had to listen to how her skin color became an issue to discuss. With a contract with the French house L’Oréal since 2001, in 2008 there were accusations against the company for bleaching her skin, precisely in some images in which the artist appeared with lighter hair, as now in the presentation of Renaissance. The multinational denied it. She also had Beyoncé’s platinum hair on her album cover 4, from 2012, and also sparked comments for her skin tone. In 2017, Madame Tussaud’s museum in New York had to explain that her skin could be lighter due to “the lighting and flash in the photographs.”
The most controversial comment in this regard, however, came from her own father, Mathew Knowles, who at the beginning of the artist with Destiny’s Child and until 2011 was her representative. In mid-2019, in an interview, he himself assured that racism was still very present in the music industry. “If my daughter had had darker skin, I am convinced that she would not have had the same success. Look what happened to Kelly Rowland,” he said, referring to the woman who was her daughter’s partner in the group and whose career has not been as meteoric as Beyoncé’s. “In this world there is still a lot of segregation. Especially because of those who decide what music plays on the radio, they have a very specific idea of what they believe beauty is and they apply it to the singers they support,” he said in a radio interview. “When we look back, even when Whitney Houston was triumphing, we can see in all the photos how they used makeup to make her skin look less dark… There is still this perception that the lighter your skin is, the smarter and richer you are. Even among people of color themselves.”
#Beyoncés #mother #defends #singer #racist #criticism #skin #color #perpetuate #jealousy #racism #sexism #double #standards