In a new docuseries tagged Profiled: The Black Man, Tina Knowles-Lawson recalls defending her son-in-law from a flight attendant who questioned why she allowed her daughter get married to the “IZZO” rapper.
Speaking with PEOPLE, Tina said “I can remember getting on a plane and an older white woman saying, ‘Oh, your son[-in-law] is a gangster rapper, right? How did you let him marry your daughter?'”
“She didn’t think of him as a CEO or even a talented celebrity that was a great businessman,” she continued. “At that time, I remember thinking, I can’t be mad at her because that is what the media portrays.”
“I was very happy to educate her,” Knowles-Lawson continued. “She apologized at the end, and she said, ‘I’m sorry. I just hear that.’ And I said, ‘Yes, you assume, but you really should go and do some research on it because, no, he’s a CEO of a record label.’ and I was like, ‘He’s a very good person. He gives, he helps people.'”
At the time Jay-Z was the CEO of Def Jam. Since then he’s become a billionaire, father and philanthropist.
Executive produced by Tina Knowles-Lawson and Trell Thomas, Profiled: The Black Man challenges the negative popular stereotype that Black Men “are dangerous” and should br feared. The first episode of the four-part docuseries premieres, Sunday Feb. 12.
“We know that our men are not dangerous,” says Tina. “We know that they’re good fathers and all of that. But we want the other races to see that, and get some kind of comfort in it, hopefully.”
