Beyoncé's mum has called out “sad little haters” who suggested the star lightened her skin for the premiere of her Renaissance film.
The singer went for a platinum blonde hair look and wore a silver dress at the red carpet event on Saturday. Some criticised Beyoncé on social media for changing her appearance and said she “looks so white”.
In a long Instagram post, Tina Knowles defended her daughter and said the comments were racist. She also said people accusing Beyoncé of lightening her skin were “stupid”, “ignorant” and “self-hating”.
“She does a film, called the Renaissance, where the whole theme is silver with silver hair, a silver carpet, and suggested silver attire and you bozos decide that she's trying to be a white woman and is bleaching her skin?” she wrote.
Tina's comments were posted alongside a video montage of Beyoncé – including a photo from the premiere – over the top of her song Brown Skin Girl. Beyoncé released the track in 2019 as part of the film soundtrack for The Lion King: The Gift.
It champions blackness and includes her daughter Blue Ivy singing lyrics like “Brown skin girl/ Your skin just like pearls/ The best thing in the world”. In a documentary about the creation of the film, Beyoncé spoke about the personal significance of the words.
“When I see fathers singing Brown Skin Girl to their daughters, to know that my daughter can have the same opportunities and feel confident and feel like she doesn't have to take her braids down and she can comb her afro out and she can glisten in her brown skin… that is why I make music,” she said.
Tina's Instagram post has been liked more than 250,000 times since she shared it on Tuesday night. The 69-year-old also said she was “sick and tired” of people attacking her daughter, “instead of celebrating a sister or just ignoring if you don't like her”.
She admitted Beyoncé would be annoyed at her for the post, but said she was “fed up” with the criticism.
“This girl minds her own business. She helps people whenever she can. She lifts up and promotes black women and underdogs at all time,” she wrote.
Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé – which charts the world tour of her Grammy-winning album – premiered in Los Angeles on Saturday and is out in cinemas worldwide on Friday. The album, her first solo project after a six-year break, was praised for its fusion of black and queer influences and went straight to number one when it was released.
— CutC by bbc.com
