It's also why Matthew Knowles stood in his cocky truth during an Ebony magazine interview a few weeks ago when he said his daughters, Beyoncé and Solange, are successful entertainers because their skin tones are lighter than the typical black girl's. And perhaps, said Dubois, it's behind former first lady Michelle Obama's choice to have her portrait done for the National Portrait Gallery by Amy Sherald, an artist known for gray scale, something I didn't think of at the time, but with all of the insults hurled at the former first lady because of her black features, it's completely possible.