Mathew Knowles Clarifies Comments On Colorism

By Camille Augustin

A week after talent manager Mathew Knowles made headlines for comments on how colorism shaped his view as a young boy growing up in the deep south, the 66-year-old has returned to further clarify his remarks.

During an interview with PageSix TV, Knowles expanded upon his forthcoming book, “Racism From the Eyes of a Child,” by stating that the passages stem from his point of view and shouldn’t be pinned to his daughters, Beyonce and Solange Knowles.

“My life is based on this book of getting a broad range of people to begin dialogue about racism,” Knowles said. “My daughters are mentioned once in this book. This book is not about my daughters. This book is about how I feel and the road that I’m sharing with the audience of racism and how it affected me.”

He added he never had a “discussion about colorism” with his daughters or other members of Destiny’s Child because he felt “that’s not a conversation that I thought they needed to be a part of.” In an interview with Ebony magazine that sparked this conversation, Knowles said his mother used to tell him to not bring a “nappy-head black girl” home and experienced the “brown paper bag test” when he was a student at Fisk University in the early 70s.

“I have a chapter in the book that talks about eroticized rage,” Knowles said. “I talk about going to therapy and sharing-one day I had a breakthrough-that I used to date mainly white women or very high-complexion black women that looked white. I actually thought when I met Tina [Knowles-Lawson], 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.”

Knowles also shared that he’s working on his next book that’ll focus on untold stories behind the award-winning group, Destiny’s Child. He remained tight-lipped on whether or not the passage will feature interviews from all its members.

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