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Madison Xu '23 Writes Winning Editorial on Anti-Asian Hate for International New York Times Competition

Photo Credit: Chang W. Lee-The New York Times

The surge in anti-Asian hate crimes "has rightly sparked protests and outrage" but cannot be addressed effectively "without dismantling Asian stereotypes" writes 16-year-old junior Madison Xu '23. Xu expressed these thoughts in an editorial published June 15, 2021, by The New York Times' educational site, The Learning Network (TLN).

Xu's opinion piece is a top ten winner in The Learning Network's 2021 Student Editorial Contest. Her entry was selected from among 11,202 submissions by middle and high school students around the world. Now in its eighth year, this annual competition asks students worldwide to write opinion pieces on "the issues that matter to them, what they'd like to see change in the world, and what they wish people to better understand."

In her powerful editorial Xu responds to the March 2021 Atlanta spa shootings that killed eight, including six Asian and Asian-American women. The HM-er linked this tragedy to "America's history of stereotyping, fetishizing and oppressing Asians and Asian-Americans" and also traces over two centuries of anti-Asian prejudice in this country. Xu's piece begins with the story of how her aunt decided to close her own salon in the face of anti-Asian violence, in order to protect her employees. This personal narrative added a dramatic detail to Xu's essay—a quality the TLN judges sought as they reviewed submissions to the competition.

It was through her participation in the Incubator Program of HM's Office for Identity, Culture and Institutional Equity (ICIE) that Xu prepared her piece. "I worked on this editorial as a final project in the Incubator Program with the ICIE, where a few other Upper Division students and I were privileged to be able to listen and talk to guest speakers about activism and social justice, to learn about what we can do as students," Xu said. "One of the guests recommended submitting my essay to The New York Times. I did a little research on my own, and came across an editorial contest for students." Xu thanked the ICIE Incubator Program's speakers, and students "for teaching me about their individual approaches to activism." She also acknowledged Ronald Taylor, then ICIE Associate Director, and ICIE Program Associate Jaquan Shaw "for providing that space and the resources I needed to work on this project."

You can read Xu's editorial here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/learning/we-cannot-fight-anti-asian-hate-without-dismantling-asian-stereotypes.html

 

 

 

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