Tina Knowles Slams Trolls Accusing Beyonc of Skin Bleaching or "White-Fishing"

You wanna mess with Beyoncé, you need to be prepared for the wrath of the Beyhive—but that’s not all you have to worry about. In true mama-bear fashion, the singer’s mother, Tina Knowles, has abandoned her usual tight lip, to get the trolls and critics in order and tell them what’s what.

You see, the internet was doing its thing in regard to Beyoncé’s look at the Renaissance film premiere, where she showed off flowing platinum hair. Yes, the superstar did look paler than usual—but rather than consider the way the color of her hair might affect her skin tone (to say nothing of the silver dress and carpet, the season, and the special lighting), some people decided she must have bleached her skin, or was “trying to look white.” And Aunty Tina? She wasn't having it, and shared this fan-made video with a lengthy caption, and no holding back.

“Came across this today and decided to post it after seeing all of the stupid, ignorant, self-hating racist statements about her lightening her skin, and wearing platinum hair, wanting to be white. 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?”

Knowles revealed that a white journalist had even reached out to Beyoncé’s hairstylist Neal Farinah, asking for a statement on fans apparently saying the singer wanted to be white. Ms. Tina said it “made my blood boil.”

After referencing the countless incredible Black stars who have worn platinum hair for the last century, all the way back to Etta James, Knowles put it simply: “I am sick and tired of people attacking her. Every time she does something that she works her ass off for and is a statement of her work ethic, talent and resilience. Here you sad little haters come out the woodwork. Jealousy and racism, sexism, double standards, you perpetuate those things.”

It is not typical for anyone from Beyoncé’s family to speak out like this, which Knowles acknowledged: “I know that she is going to be pissed at me for doing this, but I am fed up! This girl minds her own business. She helps people whenever she can. She lifts up & promotes Black women and underdogs at all times.”

Sorry, but moms are, always have been, and always will be the MVPs.

And PSA for those pettily claiming that wearing blonde hair and pale skin was “white-fishing”: That doesn’t exist. If people of other races are trying to look white, or emulating Caucasian characteristics, that is assimilation and comes from the global dominance of Western beauty standards. Accusations of white-fishing are usually a thinly veiled attempt to dismiss the validity of “Black-fishing” as a damaging phenomenon. And I say: You aren’t fooling anyone.

Elena Chabo is Cosmopolitan UK's beauty writer, working on everything from buzzy celeb news and trending beauty, to sincere first-person reviews and engaging video content for social media. She also creates meatier features and expert-led how-to guides, for print and online. Her passion for Black beauty, , and the ways beauty interacts with culture, society, identity and relationships, quickly took over her writing career and led her into beauty journalism.

Following an MA in Magazine Journalism in 2017, she cut her teeth across various roles at , before taking on a Digital Writer role at . It was here that beauty took centre stage and she launched and ran the site's first . Remaining at Hearst, she joined the Cosmo beauty team in 2022. Find her on  

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