Casey Gerald — a gay black man from a poor Dallas neighbourhood who made it to Yale and Harvard — embodies the American dream. His rise suggests that anyone can still succeed in the US, if they try.
One evening, at a buffet dinner, Gerald finds himself telling his story to George W Bush. The former president is particularly entranced that Gerald made it despite largely absent parents.
Years later, on stage in Beverly Hills, Bush retells a mangled version of Gerald’s journey. That’s because stories such as his get used as justifications for the whole unfair US system. The American dream, Gerald argues, acts “as a distraction from the American machine”.
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