I am about to explore a world of which I have no part, but one that I bear witness to, though maybe not as much as I should. Actually, now that I think about it, I am not sure the last time I saw a depiction of a gay black man in culture. I have seen black men, I have seen gay men, I have see black gay women, but the black gay man seems to be hiding somewhere, deep in the throes of the internet. On a porn site, maybe. I don’t know. I haven’t looked.

This is exactly the issue that Wesley Morris explores as he travels through the history of black men in pop culture, starting 100 years ago with The Birth of a Nation. Throughout his piece Morris explores his own sexuality through its reflection on the screen. He looks at the demonization of his genitalia during the early 20^th century and how his reproductive capabilities were introduced to America, only as a way to produce more workers with no care to those involved and no need for love between them.

These are all ideas I have never grappled with. I am constantly portrayed on the big and small screen. My sexuality is almost essential to a good plot line. I definitely take it for granted. We are slowly getting used to seeing white penises on screen and we are even more used to seeing breasts. I don’t even think about it anymore. It doesn’t faze me. I try to imagine what it would be like for my sexuality mixed with my race to be taboo. Imagine how long America will take to move on to black penises, let alone two. We have come a long way, but something about this intersexuality seems almost too taboo for America.

This underrepresentation has its affects on black men. Morris, a gay man himself, is left feeling rejected when his white sexual partners are disappointed by what he brings to the table, blinded by the stereotype of the well-endowed black man because while, black male sexuality has begun to make it’s way into pop culture, “there is still something missing…romance”(Morris). Black men are seen as sex figures. Maybe that is why Morris’ white partner was expecting a sex figure sized penis.

All of this explains why the new movie Moonlight breaks down barriers. Both Morris, and Hilton Als, a critic for The New Yorker can’t praise Moonlight enough. It is more than a great movie, to them it is their story finally being told.

But, as Als and Morris make very clear it is also a great movie. The critics love the acting, the cinematography, the writing. Above all, the critics love the story being told sans the clichés that usually accompany it. Als describes it as a movie that, “undoes our expectations as viewers, and as humans beings too.

While Morris does not discuss the scene where the sexuality of the main character, Chiron, comes to fruition, Als find it to be the center of why the film is important, not because of what the camera shows, but what it doesn’t show. “As [Kevin] works his hands down Chiron’s shorts, the camera pulls back; this is the only moment of physical intimacy in the film, and Jenkins knows that in this study of black male closeness the point isn’t to show fucking; it’s to show the stops and starts, the hesitation, and the rush that comes when one black body finds pleasure and something like liberation in another.” Penetration not necessary.

Though Morris doesn’t site the scene, he does praise Jenkins for his portrayal of Chiron as a human, as opposed to a “sex machine.” While his sexuality seems to be explored throughout the film, it is not the whole point. He is not a sex crazed, big dicked, man, running through Miami looking for pleasure. Rather, he is a boy turned to a man, living his life, exploring his sexuality just like anyone would. Both Als and Morris praise Jenkins for the cliché-free, natural portrayal. “It’s as if Jenkins has seen the punks and thugs and clowns who’ve popped up in so many movies, as if he knows about the fetishes and the gazing…all the gawking that’s done at black men and their penises without ever truly seeing. It’s as if he knows all of this and is determined to strip it all away. There’s nothing inherently wrong with black men’s sexuality — only the ways it has been distorted, demonized and denied.” Until now.

Both critics point to Marlon Riggs and Isaac Julien as influences for Berry Jenkins, the director of the film. These two men seem to be the only other successful directors to explore the topic of gay black sexuality, and they did so twenty years ago. Als, writes of the comparison, however, saying the “essay-film” format “allowed the audience a kind of built in distance” because “no one in the nineties wanted to finance films about gay black men”(Als). In fact, Als is still unsure as to how Jenkins was able to do it. Movies are made everyday about serial killers chopping up their victims and raunchy sex, but the love of two black men is still too controversial.

Despite this, Jenkins succeeds and in doing so he opens up a whole new world for pop culture, one that Morris and Als are happy to explore. Morris dsicusses a lot more in his piece. He goes through 100 years of black male sexuality and it is beautiful and eye-opening, but when you strip his piece down, you get the same experience as you do from the other article” Two men, who are tired of how they are portrayed in pop culture, who seem to be in awe, who are grateful of the huge leap Jenkins took with Moonlight, who can’t help, but see themselves in the life of Chiron, and who are excited to continue the journey.