Velshi Banned Book Club: The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater [Video]

In 2013, something terrible happened on the 57 bus in Oakland, California. Then-18-year-old Sasha Fleischman fell asleep riding the bus home from school holding their Russian literature reading assignment. As Sasha, who identifies as agender, or gender nonbinary, slept, three teenage boys used a cigarette lighter to set their white gauzy skirt on fire. Sasha’s legs were burned from thigh to calf. The young teenager, Richard, who flicked the cigarette lighter, was arrested and charged as an adult. The award-winning journalist Dashka Slater reported on the story for The New York Times Magazine. Then she found more to explore – the lasting implications of this hate crime, the way gender and race came into play, the reality of our legal system, and all of the two young lives that were changed forever – and wrote a non-fiction book.March 22, 2025