House of Cards star Mahershala Ali delivered perhaps the most moving speech at the Screen Actors Guild Awards when he was named best supporting actor for his role in Moonlight.

Mahershala, who is also nominated for a supporting actor Oscar, said he sees lessons for today in the coming-of-age drama, in which he plays a drug dealer who changes the life of a young gay black boy.

Mahershala Ali accepts the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role for (Chris Pizzello/AP)

He told the ceremony: “We see what happens when you persecute people. They fold into themselves.”

He said his relationship with his mother, an ordained minister, exemplified tolerance after he converted to Islam 17 years ago and she “didn’t do backflips” when he told her.

He said: “We put things to the side, I’m able to see her. She’s able to see me. We love each other. The love has grown. That stuff is minutiae. It’s not that important.

“When we get caught up in the minutiae and the details that make us all different, I think there’s two ways of seeing that.

“There’s the opportunity to see the texture of that person, the characteristics that make them unique, and then there’s an opportunity to go to war about it and say that this person is different from me, I don’t like you, so let’s battle.”