Mathew Knowles, Beyonce’s father reveals singer’s selling point

According to the father of American singer, Beyonce, the light skin of his daughter has helped her to become more famous.

Knowles is promoting his book Racism: From the Eyes of a Child, which discusses race relations from his perspective growing up in the deep South.

Speaking to Ebony Magazine on his experiences of racism in the industry, he said,

“When it comes to Black females, who are the people who get their music played on pop radio? 

“Mariah Carey, Rihanna, the female rapper Nicki Minaj, my kids [Beyonce and Solange], and what do they all have in common?

“They’re all lighter skinned. Do you think that’s an accident?’  

“So you get it!’

He also admitted that he thought former wife and Beyonce’s mother, Tina Knowles, was white when he first met her.

“In the deep South in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the shade of your Blackness was considered important. So I, unfortunately, grew up hearing that message. 

“I actually thought when I met Tina, my former wife, that she was White. Later I found out that she wasn’t, and she was actually very much in-tune with her Blackness. 

“I had been conditioned from childhood. With eroticized rage, there was actual rage in me as a Black man, and I saw the White female as a way, subconsciously, of getting even or getting back.”