We all know that Mrs. Tina Knowles does not play about her daughters. She was quick to defend her daughter Beyonce’s new campaign for Tiffany & Co. after some critics slammed the singer for wearing a “blood diamond.”
The pics of Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z launching their “ABOUT LOVE’ campaign for the luxury jeweler, of course, went viral earlier this week.
The Daily Mail reported that Beyonce is the fourth person to wear the legendary diamond necklace that Audrey Hepburn once wore.
However, she was slammed for doing so. Many people went to Twitter to voice their outrage, noting that the famed 128.54 carat Tiffany diamond was from a colonial mine in Kimberley, South Africa.
The United Nations defines a blood diamond as any diamond that is mined and sold in that area to fund military action against a government.
Tina was quick to respond, asking, ‘How many of you socially conscious activist own diamonds ? I thought so ! Well guess what did you go to try to check to see where the diamond came from? Probably not.’
‘So when you guys get engaged you won’t have a diamond you gonna put on a sterling silver band And you better check out where it came from and the origin of where came from and why you add it check out the calls for the Leather that you weird because they made it came from another country to to ban and not buy diamonds right because your righteous !!’
Writer Zoe Samudzi also sent out a tweet: ‘Tiffany’s put Beyoncé in a diamond —”discovered” in a colonial mine in Kimberly in 1877—that no black woman had ever worn before in an ad with a never-ever-before-seen Basquiat and then pledged $2 million in scholarships & internships to HBCUs.’
Others came to the singer’s defense, pointing out that Lady Gaga also wore the necklace but received little backlash.
But still, others had more to say. ‘This is not just “a necklace” it’s a blood diamond that was mined off the blood of south africans, if they didn’t meet their quota their hands and feet were mutilated or were just killed.’
The Beers’ Kimberley Mine in colonial South Africa has been described as a place that often has a dehumanizing environment for its poorly paid Black workers.
Charles Tiffany, the founder of Tiffany, bought the stone from the mine in 1879.
Hepburn wore the iconic jewel to help promote her film Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961. Lady Gaga also wore it to the 2019 Oscars when she was nominated for A Star Is Born.
