Last Saturday, the premiere of the film »Renaissance« took place in Los Angeles. The two-and-a-half-hour documentary deals with the world tour of the US singer Beyoncé. That evening she appeared in a silver dress, her hair blonde. And her skin is bright. Too bright?
For some, apparently, yes, if you read the comments on the picture on Instagram. There are sentences like "White Beyoncé" or "Why did she lighten her skin?". These statements would probably have fizzled out in the digital nowhere – if Beyoncé's mother hadn't taken them up prominently.
In an angry post, Tina Knowles responded to the "sad little haters." She wrote, "You idiots think she's trying to be a white woman and bleach her skin." It is sad that "their own people continue to tell the stupid narrative".
A white reporter contacted Beyoncé's hairdresser and asked for a statement. "Well, that made my blood boil that this white woman felt so entitled to discuss her blackness." The gossip portal »TMZ« confirmed that there was such a request.
Knowles, wrote that she was tired of her daughter being attacked again and again. "I know she'll be mad at me for doing this, but I'm sick of it!"
In fact, this isn't the first time Beyoncé's skin tone has been the subject of debate. In 2008, she advertised for the cosmetics company L'Oréal. The cosmetics company was then accused of brightening them by means of image editing, which the company denied.
»I was conditioned in my childhood«
Beyoncé's father had also spoken about the topic. In 2018, he wrote a book about racism, which is also dedicated to »Colorism«. In other words, the idea that within an ethnic group, favoritism or discrimination happens on the basis of skin tone.
He himself, a black man, grew up thinking that darker skin was inferior, as he described it in an interview with Ebony magazine. His mother told him not to bring a black woman home. "I was conditioned in my childhood."
He had only met women who were light-skinned. He also thought Beyoncé's mother, Tina Knowles, was white until he learned about her Creole roots.
He also explained his daughter's fame with her lighter skin. "When it comes to black women, who are the people whose music is played on pop radio? Mariah Carey, Rihanna, rapper Nicki Minaj, my kids [Beyoncé and Solange], and what do they all have in common?" When the reporter replied that they had lighter skin, Knowles said, "And do you think that's a coincidence?"
Beyoncé herself has not commented. In the video shared by her mother, her song "Brown Skin Girl" is playing. At one point in the video, there is the sentence: "Beyoncé is a brown skin girl. Sometimes more, sometimes less bright."
jpz