Beyoncé & Jay-Z Create A $2 Million Scholarship With Tiffany & Co. To Support HBCUs

Beyoncé And Jay-Z Create A $2 Million Scholarship With Tiffany & Co. To Support HBCUs

Together, Beyoncé, 40, and Jay-Z, 51, are giving back to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

The Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation, BeyGOOD, and Tiffany & Co. have all come together to create the About Love Scholarship. 

Beyonce, Jay-Z

The About Love Scholarship, will provide $2 Million in funding to students in the arts and/or creative fields at Lincoln Unversity of PA in Pennsylvania, Norfolk State University in Virginia, Bennett College in North Carolina, University of Arkansas Pine Bluff in Arkansas, and Central State University in Ohio.

All of which are small private and state HBCUs.

The news of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s new scholarship comes after the couple faced backlash for their About Love campaign with Tiffany & Co. for wearing the iconic Tiffany Yellow Diamond and posing with a never-before-seen painting by Jean-Michael Basquiat.

As previously reported, friends of the late artist were not happy about the ad and spoke out against it. Alexis Adler, who lived with the artist said,

“I’d seen the ad a couple of days ago and I was horrified. The commercialization and commodification of Jean and his art at this point — it’s really not what Jean was about.”

She continued,

“Unfortunately, the museums came to Jean’s art late, so most of his art is in private hands and people don’t get to see that art except for the shows. Why show it as a prop to an ad? Loan it out to a museum. In a time where there were very few Black artists represented in Western museums, that was his goal: to get to a museum.”

Following the news of the diamond, which has been labeled as ‘blood diamond’ due to its history, Beyoncé was reportedly ‘angry and disappointed.’

Her mother, Tina Lawson,67, defended the singer saying,

“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 ban and not buy diamonds right because your righteous !!

Beyonce Knowles & mother Tina Lawson

The About Love Scholarship applications will open at each school on Friday, September 10th, 2021, and will close on Sunday, September 26th, 2021 at 11:59 pm EST.

How do you feel about the Carter’s scholarship for HBCUs? Tell us in the comments. 

VIA