It’s hard to find a real, human black man on the movie screen. They’re either hard as a rock, dumb as a rock, or it’s literally just Dwayne Johnson! You may ask, does this affect how black men treat themselves in the world?

The roles for black male (and detrimentally female actors) are slim to none in this industry that is just barely progressing through a decades-old insistence of shallow-based portrayals. As this tradition grew throughout history, audiences were fed supporting-actors that lacked an actual humanity and were nearly treated as a plot drive. I care to discuss black men in film particularly since screenwriters have ultimately upheld this belief in heteronormative, hyper-masculine behavior since the beginning of the film industry.

Men really have it so hard in this world [who am I telling?]. The countless expectations from society are very much like an echo chamber in the human experience. What are men really like without the masculinity hegemony dominating their their[our?] every step, breath, look and walk?  Throughout our lives, we’ve all experienced moment where people assume too much before they even get to know your individual nature.

In recent times, we have seen a slow progression towards depictions of true characters that experience the vast span of human emotions that are seemingly deemed anti-masculine. Recent releases such as DOPE, a story of a high-school geek that fights to avoid the fallouts of a poor neighborhood, illustrates the way that any individual can be susceptible to the ills of poverty-induced areas. Rather than paint the picture of a hardened individual, we see a kid that fits none of the popular black stereotypes. Within this fight against stereotype, the main character understands how individualism isn’t the only solution to success, but that a reliance on the current environment may prove to a worse choice.

Another notable film, Moonlight, aims to paint the fight to be able to express tenderness within a socio-economic upbringing that denies those emotions at all circumstances. As the movie industry progresses (crumbles), it will be intriguing to see how the authenticity of the black man in film will evolve. Will it succumb to societal stereotypes or become a varied and consistently unique amongst other character types. We shall see!