For any outsider looking in, Asian Americans seem like a successful group of people that has successfully assimilated themselves in elite circles and opened doors to wealth and education. When many Americans think of Asians, they think of doctors, engineers, coders…or Crazy Rich Asians.

However, there are two sides to the Asian American experience. Behind closed doors, Asian professionals are still seen as ‘the other’, and many are still unwillingly typecast into ‘model minority’ roles and behaviors. 30% of AAPI professionals report workplace discrimination, but because of blanket stereotypes surrounding their wealth and success, most people of other races say discrimination against Asians is non-existent.

In 2021, in the face of Asian hate, we launched a pro-bono campaign in partnership with Ascend that set out to expose the model minority myth as well as the numbers that support the ‘Asian success story’, and to issue a call for systemic change.

The Sound of the Other Side didn’t just talk about the reality of the Asian experience at work, it used 360-dimensional audio to make people feel it. It was narrated by Asian American podcaster, Natalie Kim, who introduces four respected Asian leaders who share personal experiences of microaggressions and indignities in the workplace. It’s dramatized by character voices and sfx that transport the listener to the moment.

We hear about Candy Gebhart, who overheard her boss saying there were ‘too many Asians on the team’; Eric Toda, who was mistaken for a food delivery guy instead of a marketing leader because of how he looked; Anne Chow, who was rejected five times for a sales role because of a stereotype that she was a technical worker; and Don Liu, who was told he was valued as a detail-oriented worker rather than someone who could think big and be strategic.

We partnered with Fortune, the leading list directory magazine (40 under 40, etc.) to publish our own “Other Side list” and provided the audio experience using immersive directional audio to invite listeners to connect with Other Side stories in a more intimate way.

Ascend - The Other Side

CREDITS

Michelle Tang

Tim Konn

Gold partners