Mathew Knowles is sharing some insight on upbringing and, in the process, extensively touched on his experience with racism while growing up in the Deep South. In that same breath, he revealed that, upon meeting his now ex-wife, Tina Lawson, he thought she was white, a race he had then seemingly considered to be superior given how he was raised.

Speaking with Ebony, via theJasmineBRAND.com, about his new book, Racism: From the Eyes of a Child, he started out by explaining that his mother struggled with being Black, herself, with those sentiments eventually extending to him.

"When I was growing up, my mother used to say, 'Don't ever bring no nappy-head Black girl to my house,'" he said. "In the Deep South in the '50s, '60s and '70s, the shade of your Blackness was considered important. So I, unfortunately, grew up hearing that message."

After adding that that internalized sense of colorism motivated him to solely date white women in his younger days, he mentioned that he even thought his ex-wife, Tina Lawson, was white when he first met her.

"I have a chapter in the book that talks about eroticized rage. 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," he said. "I actually thought when I met Tina, 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."

He further explained that he saw dating solely white women "as a way, subconsciously, of getting even or getting back."

Read his full interview, here.