Tina Knowles shocked by older white woman grilling her on Beyoncé marrying 'gangster rapper' Jay-Z

Tina Knowles-Lawson is nothing if not a cool customer but even Beyoncé and Solange's mom gets flustered — as she explained during an interview with Gayle King on Thursday's CBS Mornings.

Lawson was promoting the new docuseries Profiled: The Black Man, of which she is an executive producer. The series will tackle the various stereotypes Black men have had to face as hurdles to the recognition of their full humanity. She offered a personal experience as an example.

"I can remember getting on a plane, and an older white woman saying, 'Oh, your son is a gangster rapper, right? How did you let him marry your daughter?' " Lawson recalled in a clip from Profiled.

"It was just shocking to me and I said, 'No, actually, my son is a CEO,' " Lawson continued. "She didn't think of him as a CEO, or even a talented celebrity that was a great businessman. At that time, I remember thinking, 'I can't be mad at her, because that is what the media portrays.' "

That woman was, of course, referring to Jay-Z, né Shawn Carter, who "officially" became a billionaire in 2019, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two years later. Beyoncé married the businessman turned "business, man" in 2008 and together have had three kids, 10-year-old Blue Ivy, and 4-year-old twins Rumi and Sir.

"I sat there and I thought about how the media portrays Black men and how that is typical of the things that they would focus on, the negatives," Lawson told King regarding that incident. "[They] try to portray us as these dangerous, our men as dangerous, uneducated. Gangster rapper, that's all she could come up with, but that's what she had been seeing on TV and all in the media. That's how we're portrayed, unfortunately."

Lawson says with Profiled: The Black Man, she is trying to "debunk those stereotypes that our men are dangerous."

"I pray that everybody will open their minds and open their hearts," Lawson said of both hers and the show's aim, "and that everyone will get together and see each other as people, not by the color of their skin."

Profiled: The Black Man will premiere Feb. 12 on Discovery+.

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