The opening voice-over of Zone of Nonbeing: Guantanamo cuts right to the chase, asking off the bat "What white people do you have here in Guantanamo Bay? This is a place for Muslims." Seeking to expose the human rights violations perpetuated by post-9/11 Islamophobia, the filmmakers examine the lack of ethics behind the operation of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.
UC Berkeley ethicist Ramon Grosfoguel elaborates on the term "zone of non-being" as a place where those deemed "below the line of human" are managed with methods of violence and inhumane treatment. Interview subjects cite historical instances of colonial expansion as the driving force behind creating these zones, dating back to 1492 with the conquest of Granada and continuing through the US's history of human rights violations from the genocide of Native Americans to the Civil War and the continued racial segregation of the mid-20th century.