“Who Is You?” What Color Are You in the “Moonlight”?

Last updated on: February 23, 2017 at 9:39 am by Paul Louis Metzger

“Who Is You?” What Color Are You in the “Moonlight”? 2017-02-23T09:39:08-08:00 Paul Louis Metzger

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[**Beware: Light Spoilers Ahead for the Movie Moonlight**]

All too often, we reduce people to the things they do, the things others do to them, who they are associated with, the color of their skin, the names we give them… The list goes on. Take for example the critically acclaimed movie Moonlight (Here are a few reviews of the film from The New York Times, The Guardian, and the New Yorker).

The main character is an African American, whom we get glimpses of as a boy, a teenager, and as a young man. He is called “Little,” “Black,” and “Chiron” (the name his mother gave him). He doesn’t say much, and people are tempted to speak for him, even reducing him to various associations. But he’s so much more than the labels.

Late in the movie, Chiron’s friend, or boyfriend, who is also more than his associations and decisions in life, asks him, “Who is you, man?” Chiron is still finding out. Aren’t we all?

Early in the movie, as a boy, Chiron or “Little” is having a conversation with a man who becomes his surrogate father (Juan). He is a drug dealer, but is so much more. You wouldn’t want to cross him, but he does not allow the stereotypes of him and Chiron to keep them apart; he (along with his wholesome girlfriend) crosses the barriers of stereotypes and bullying by other boys, along with Chiron’s silence, to feed him, protect him, house him, and teach him how to swim.

After swimming in the ocean, Juan and Chiron are sitting on the beach. Juan strikes up a brief conversation:

Juan: I’ve been here a long time. Out of Cuba. A lot of black folks are Cuban. You wouldn’t know from being here now. I was a wild little shortie, man. Just like you. Running around with no shoes on, the moon was out. This one time, I run by this old… this old lady. I was running, howling. Kinda of a fool, boy. This old lady, she stopped me. She said…

Juan: [imitates old lady voice] “Running around, catching a lot of light”. “In moonlight, black boys look blue”. “You’re blue”. “That’s what I’m gonna call you: ‘Blue’.”

[pause]

Little: Is your name ‘Blue’?

Juan: [laughs] Nah.

[pause]

Juan: At some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you’re going to be. Can’t let nobody make that decision for you.

The movie is about breaking out of people’s stereotypes for us like “Black” or “Blue,” druggie, “faggot,” or ex-con. Chiron’s mother is a drug addict, but she is still addicted to her son, and he is addicted to her, no matter how much she neglected him growing up, or how much he resents her. When he is grown, she is filled with remorse for having failed him when he was a child and a teenager. While she is a recovering addict, her son is now “trapping,” or selling drugs.

His only real friend as a boy and teen, who is more than a friend to him, and who is himself hard to define (an ex-con, a father, a cook at a diner…), asks Chiron when they are reunited as men: “Who is you, Chiron?” The whole movie, I’m asking that same question, without receiving a definitive answer. None of us can answer the question for Chiron either, not even his friend, who knows Chiron is so much more than one who’s “trapping.” Like Chiron, we are all trapping ourselves in the names and labels and monikers we choose or impose, or allow others to stick on us. If only we could see one another and ourselves as God made us to be: as created in the divine image with invaluable worth.

Chiron must answer the question of who he is for himself, just as we must answer the question for ourselves: “Who is I?” No one can answer that question for us. We must decide for ourselves who and what we’re going to be. Don’t let another person, or life’s hardships, victimize or bully you into submission. Speak out, name and write your own story.

Drug free or drug bound, gay or straight, ex-con, con, or pre-con; black, blue, red or white; no matter the names and labels, who are we really, and who are we conning? Who is you? Who is me?

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