“That’s what we’ve been building to the whole season, to that beautiful moment where he’s protecting her and he understands,” showrunner Justin Hillian says of the season finale, which showed Shaad defending transgender character Imani against a man who made vulgar comments about her on the street. Jasmine Davis, the transgender actress who plays Imani, tells TVLine that when she became privy to an outline of the storyline early in the season, she was encouraged by Shaad’s evolution. “I want a Black man to be shown in a different light, that they’re not all homophobic or transphobic,” she says. “Sometimes the world only shows that part. They never show the part where so many heterosexual Black men who are so comfortable with girls like me and have us as friends or aunties or cousins and family members.”
TOPICS: The Chi, Showtime, Jasmine Davis, Justin Hillian, LGBTQ