Rethinking and Unmasking Blackness in Moonlight

We are only as real as the masks we wear. Black boys have an affinity for masks and scheduling their removal and adherence. Much like in Jordan Peele’s Us where the young boy chooses to wear a mask throughout the film, I would argue that Jenkins’ Moonlight used masks that could only be seen in the blue colored hues of the moon and deeply personal close-up shots that force the mask to be stripped and display raw vulnerability. Following the metamorphic journey of Chiron, a young Black boy growing up in Miami, Jenkins’ development of Chiron’s character and identity are tied to the circumstances that he endures, specifically, his relationship with Juan and the brutal socialization tactics of his peers, that birth his final form in the film known as “Black.

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Centralizing his identity around his Blackness while suppressing his queerness through adhering to the practices of hyper-masculinity, I would offer that Jenkins aimed to maintain conventional notions of Blackness through masking queerness under a socially accepted and feared image of the hyper-masculine male by simultaneously challenging Blackness in showing that the mask itself exists, under the harsh light of the moon, rather than denying its existence. Jenkins tells the story of Chiron in three distinct parts. He starts with Little, the youngest version, and depicts the relentless tormenting of a child that hardly utters any words during this Harry 2stage of his life. Juan, his stand-in father figure he meets, becomes the model for the protagonist’s final form, and arguably challenges Blackness in his reaffirming conversation with Little about accepting and normalizing his possible queerness, which is not the most prevalent response given by Black adult men, especially fathers. This transitions to a condition that maintains notions of Blackness in that the absence of a father figure appears upon Juan’s death. However, this condition is juxtaposed by Chiron’s first homosexual experience that rejects conventional notions of Blackness; it’s important to note that Jenkins shoots this under the moonlight, maintaining this thematic relevance that the moon is the hook on the door where every mask must be hung. Then, there’s Black.

Nothing but Black and the maintaining of Blackness that’s been demonstrated to him. It’s apparent that in this form he has blocked out the possibility of the color blue obstructing the perfect fit of his mask and revealing his inner vulnerability and homosexuality. He takes on the same aesthetic and practices that Juan took part in because that’s what he’s attributed to an uncontested heterosexual Black man, and he clings to its falsehood the way a child clings to their parents when they’re afraid; the persona is the manifestation of safety under Juan’s protection.The environment that the protagonist spends his developmental years in is key to the emergence of Black, the name and persona he takes on in adulthood, and can even be attributed to the necessitation of this version of himself. His earliest stages named Little and Chiron were terrorized for details that his peers nearly regarded as symptoms that pointed to queerness; in the language and connotation of such language, they regarded his sexuality as something to liken with a disease and treat, subconsciously or not, in their own way as tools of socialization to isolate and shame him. Because of this behavior as an exercise in socialization and conformity, Chiron realizes that it is all in the performance of his masculinity to determine how ontested or Harry 3uncontested his sexuality will be. In understanding the performativity and contemporary dialectical relationship between sexuality and masculinity in monolithic Black communities, he fully understands that the mask is to be worn for the purpose of keeping him safe and keep his sexuality a secret under the mask as well.

The introduction of “Black” personifies Chiron’s inner desire to be in community with everyone around him, despite that community demonizing his truth, and no longer face alienation or discovery. He forces the characteristics that are “blue” and vulnerable and exchanges them for symbols of masculinity that will undermine the queer identity they labeled him with. In the scene that shows his character, both black and blue from being beaten up by his lover, Kevin, staring into the bathroom mirror, it is with certainty that he sees the blue on his skin as signs of weakness that can no longer be visible if he is to succeed in walking the world as inconspicuously queer; when he lifts his head and looks into the mirror again, the blue is gone, and all that is left is black. Not only does he recognize that the mask is necessary, but he has also committed to wearing it indefinitely at this point, or so the watcher thinks.The quote “in moonlight, Black boys look blue” makes it clear that despite all efforts to repress their vulnerabilities, the light of the moon betrays their performative Blackness and readily displays what is hidden beneath the mask they’ve chosen. In the final scenes, the audience sees that blue, vulnerability or softness, is still a part of Black regardless of his false masculinity and new identity. Kevin, the one who influenced Chiron to take on Black, is still able to force the old blue hues to resurface as Black betrays his mask in a vulnerable unveiling moment with Kevin under the blue light of the moonlight.

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