How Moonlight Breaks Through Black Male Stereotypes

The following movie is...a tear-jerking masterpiece.

In moonlight, black boys look blue. Maybe black boys look softer in a different light. Maybe black boys are at their truest form in moonlight. Or maybe the rest of us are blind to the goodness of black boys when they’re obscured by harsh sunlight.

Moonlight is a coming-of-age drama directed by Barry Jenkins and starring Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders, and Alex Hibbert as Chiron Harris. The story follows Chiron as a child, teenager, and adult dealing with his budding sexuality and self-identity, as well as the physical and emotional abuse he faces from his mother and peers.

The film is broken into three different parts: Little, Chiron, and Black. This commentary will be focusing on the first section titled Little. Chiron meets Cuban drug dealer Juan while hiding from bullies in a crackhouse. This is where we begin seeing the breaking of harsh black male stereotypes in the film. Juan reaches out to Chiron, offering him a place to sleep for the night. Juan continues to play a positive role in Chiron’s life, teaching him to swim and defending Chiron when Juan catches Chiron’s mother smoking crack with one of his customers. When Chiron asks Juan what “faggot” means, Juan tells him that it’s a word used to make gay people feel bad about who they are. Juan stresses that there’s nothing wrong with being gay and and reiterates his support to Chiron.

We see a lot in popular media how black men are stereotyped as rough, hyper-masculine, or “dead-beat”. This plays into a dangerous image of how black men are perceived as uncaring beings focused on creating a tough front at all costs. Moonlight breaks these media displays of stereotyping by creating the character Juan. Juan is a Cuban drug dealer with a tough masculine appearance, a character type that would have been effortless in falling within any of these black male stereotypes.

In this case, however, we see Juan portrayed as a caring man looking out for the young Chiron. Juan takes on a loving paternal figure towards Chiron, offering him a place to sleep after hiding from bullies and teaching Chiron to lead a life of his own choosing. This obliterates the stereotype of the uncaring “dead-beat” dad that black men often face within popular media. While Juan is not Chiron’s father, he becomes a fatherly figure in Chiron’s life. This support from Juan helps shape the kind of man Chiron will later become in the film.

The biggest stereotype breaker has to be Juan explaining to Chiron what “faggot” means and how it is used to make gay people feel bad about who they are. Another dangerous stereotype perpetuated in popular media is the unwillingness of black men to accept gayness. This is yet another harmful stereotype that can make the coming out process for children and adults difficult. Juan shows again how supportive he is by explaining to Chiron that there is nothing wrong with being gay, nor is “faggot” a word he should use to describe others or himself. The caring nature that Juan projects out to Chiron reiterates how black men are not all subjected to toxic masculinity.

All of these points are able to be made from viewing only the first third of the film. Moonlight does an incredible job at smashing the toxic stereotypes black men are subjected to in popular media. The second and third parts of the film continue to explore what it means to be a gay black man growing up and I highly recommend that everyone watch this film in its entirety.

Because maybe black boys are beautiful in every light, we just couldn't see it.

Grab some tissues, the show is about to start.