Strings, printing ink, Patch Shields ‘23

What… did he just say. My brain whirred with memories of past instances where I was told variations of the same sentence. In every case, I disregarded the statement and just took it as a compliment. But this kind of discrimination was strange. A backhanded compliment turned upside-down. It wasn’t John’s fault, but it wasn’t mine either. Only a seemingly harmless stereotype that society had deemed acceptable. But there was something that most people hadn’t realized: even a positive label was a label.

I looked back down at my hands, my skin tinted yellow. I rubbed my hands together and watched the yellow fade to white, then back to yellow again. I knew however much I tried to rub, the yellow would never disappear.

Alicia Chu ‘24 Scholastic Gold Key

Strings

Patch Shields ‘23