Summary

In Chapter 9, “Representation Matters?,” when Ziyad moved to New York to attend “New York University’s film school,” they were convinced the city would let them “explore [their] queerness unencumbered” (125). However, they soon discovered how few Black students attended NYU.

Ziyad recalls the projects they made in their film courses. They were “committed to the idea that if [they] could only tell [their] story,” audiences “would be forced to believe” that they mattered (126). Their predominantly white classmates’ responses to their work, however, proved otherwise. When they reminisce about NYU with their classmate Kristen, Ziyad notes how laughing at their “shared pain,” keeps it from festering (129).

Ziyad recalls the “day in 2015” they heard about an incident “at the same Dallas BBQ” where they and Kristen used to “meet for lunch” (13). A Black man was arrested for getting into an altercation with two gay white...