Welcome to American Other

Our stories are not meant to exist in a vacuum. For many of us, our voice has already been shared and spread — but others have not been so lucky, victim to any number of censorship measures in an effort to evoke value from our struggles. In the digital age that we live in, our stories are meant to be shared, both in speech and on social media, in cafes and bars, at work and in schools. They may not all possess new information or great wisdom, but they have heart — the heart of this nation and the homelands we fled to come here. It is more imperative than ever that we come forward and speak.

American Other isn’t the first blog about race and culture. I doubt it’ll be the last either. It won’t be the first blog that publishes a news story about racial injustice or the strides we made. We won’t have breaking news on how our ethnicities affect entertainment or politics. We can’t teach you what it means to struggle anymore than you already know. But American Other is a collection of true stories from across the country about what it means to be of African, Asian, Hispanic, or Middle Eastern descent in the ever-evolving, racially-charged world that we live in. As news comes, we’ll share our experiences and how we’re effected by it. American Other is as much about being American as it is about being the other.

With new stories every week, we hope you follow our journey toward equality. Tell your friends, so they can tell their stories too.