Washington School District Says Asian Americans Aren’t People Of Color

by sebastian snow

cover photo by kristen seo

last week i watched from my bedroom as my mom replayed her whole life. 

i saw a current coasting through her

move here, be impoverished, 

get death threats, lose your job. 

your coworkers don’t like you, 

your friends won’t trust you,

a perpetual foreigner 

in a country that doesn’t care

if you make it out alive.

last year i watched my brother repeat the same steps as me

hatred: first the unibrow,

then the eyelids,

finally the skin. 

he’ll regret it like me.

does that make it all better? a white woman

called security, she lied and said he stole something. 

no one will explain it to him

we’re running out of time too

last time

but i don’t know who i am and maybe

i never will.

is this how it happens?

the victim, martyr, and savior

all together

i won’t be wasted, i won’t be lied to

either

if you’re going to paint me, 

at least make me

beautiful

at least say i’m something worth

dying for