Editor’s Note 05: Welcome To AYS's Newest Investigative Project

Welcome To Our Newest Investigative Project; The project of a lifetime. Formerly Titled SSSS, Now Titled, "Rep: A Story About the Stories We Tell"This investigative series was born from questioning where I picked up the ‘shame’ I felt around my identity of being Arab, Muslim, and American. Our industry, the media industry, has played a monumental role in the shame so many of us have carried throughout our lives when existing as who we are. This investigation is more than a critique into how the American media’s misrepresentation of Muslims, it is about how the stories we have been telling ourselves about ourselves are not ones we always chose for ourselves. It’s about how there are feelings we, in America, have still not fully processed and then proceeded to wage war against the feeling: terror. It is getting clear answers about who we are as a people and the stories we choose to rewrite moving forward. If America’s biggest export is its story, then how do we reclaim and rewrite the actual truths we know we’ve all been carrying. Pre and post 9/11. This investigation will be led by our AYS Team with me, Dr. Maytha Alhassen, Zaron Burnett III, and each of YOU who choose to participate, in coproduction with iHeart Media. This will be a community led investigation and your stories, your voices, will be a critical part of our research. Listen to Rep Anywhere You Podcastwww.ays.media/rep