1001 Blank White Cards, a game Sasha and their friends invented, symbolizes Sasha and their friends’ desire to have their nonbinary gender identity recognized and respected. The card game begins as a single stack of index cards during Sasha’s freshman year in high school. Some of the cards are blank, and others are filled with silly puns, inside jokes, and random thoughts and dares. The is no real point to the game, and it really “can’t be won,” but it is a fun way for Sasha and their friends to spend their time. When the game begins, Sasha is known as Luke, and as the cards fill up, Sasha slowly grows secure in their true gender identity. The rules of the game stipulate that if a player addresses Sasha with the wrong pronoun, they must immediately discard, and by the end of their senior year, the cards grow to a stack over two feet tall. Symbolically speaking, the cards reflect who Sasha and their friends are, or who they have become, and they digitally scan them “for posterity.” In the beginning, the cards remind Sasha’s friends to respect their pronouns and gender identity. Recognition of their gender identity is important to Sasha, and this is further reflected when they petition the White House to recognize nonbinary gender. The cards serve to legitimize Sasha’s gender identity early on. Of course, their friends no longer need to be reminded to respect pronouns and gender identities, and in this way, the cards symbolize optimism that others can grow to accept and respect nonbinary gender identity as well.
1001 Blank White Cards Quotes in The 57 Bus
“I don’t want for people to think of me as a he, and when they say he, not only does it reinforce in their brains that I am a he, it also reinforces in the brains of the people who are listening,” Sasha explains. “It doesn’t really directly affect me, at least to hear it—it’s more like, Huh, that’s not right. And when people use the right pronoun, it feels validating.”
1001 Blank White Cards Symbol Timeline in The 57 Bus
