How Queen Sugar Brings New Representations of Black Masculinity to TV

In the vast landscape of modern television, it is sobering to note how narrowly black men are portrayed. So, it is indeed remarkable that the black male leads in OWN's Queen Sugar are written with a full—and therefore humanizing—spectrum of emotions. "Black masculinity is something that always comes into question, growing up," says Muhammad, a fan of the show. "The fact that [Ralph Angel] allows Blue to just be blue, I think that's beautiful."

"The show normalizes these different representations of masculinity," Queen Sugar fan Achille adds.

Here, Achille and Muhammad discuss the importance of seeing a more nuanced and realistic portrayal of black men on the small screen.