"I’m third generation American. I was born in Sacramento, California. My father and all my cousins were in internment camps. I heard stories my whole life, and knowing what was done to the Japanese, we don’t want the Muslims to go through the same thing. It was wrong when they did it to the Japanese and it’s still wrong. We have to all speak out. This whole country, unless you’re Native American, is made of immigrants. We have to all remember where we came from. American means I have the right to speak out, I have freedom of speech, anyone who disagrees with me, they can speak out too, but I have to speak out for what I believe is right, and I don’t believe that what Trump’s doing is correct. It’s been proven throughout history that it’s wrong. It’s embarrassing, it’s humiliating. He does not represent the majority. The majority of Americans welcome immigrants, welcome Muslims. We don’t want terrorists, but you don’t blanket deny people from Middle Eastern countries to come in, that’s not right."

"The simple answer is I am American. The complicated answer is, what makes me American? I remember when I got my ears pierced by hot sticks, I knew that something was a little different. My mom is from Korea and my dad is from the Gullah. The Gullah is like the Caribbean of the South, descendants of enslaved Africans who settled in the lowlands of South Carolina and Georgia. In my case they are mixed with indigenous native people—the Cherokee, the Yemassee. My dad was in the army and he met my mom in Korea. Being an army brat I grew up all over America. Technically, having Cherokee blood I am actually an original American, but being born in America makes me American too. America today is like a mural of different colors and pieces that make one beautiful picture. A melting pot to me means we’re all just dumped together and mixed around. But really it’s a choice, we’re creating this picture."

"I was born in Houston, Texas. My parents were born and raised in Pakistan, they moved here three years before I was born for a better life. It’s hard to make a living out there. My dad is a shopkeeper, he owns a gas station, and my mom used to own a hair salon, and now she babysits her grandkids. This is the only life that we know. You don’t see a lot of open support for Muslims in this country, you don’t feel welcome in the country you were born in. ‪After 9/11‬ I was a kid in 9th grade. At that time hating on Muslims was so fresh but now people have become more aware that everyone is different, every Muslim is different. We don’t think of extremists as Muslims. I’m a normal guy—I moved to LA to start acting, and in cities like LA or New York people don’t worry about what religion you are, because everybody is different. I don’t think we’re in a bubble, I think Middle America is in a bubble. I think we are the ones who live normally and they are the ones who refuse to accept that people are different. It’s going to be a long four years but I am very hopeful. If there’s anything good that Trump did, he brought people together against him and his policies and his outrageous point of view."

"I was born and raised in San Diego, California. My mom’s from Australia. My grandparents are originally from Italy, my other side is German, Irish, English, Hungarian, French. Some of them came over on the Mayflower. The United States itself is founded on immigration. Everything you have around you is built by immigrant hands! I was born and raised here but my ancestors were immigrants. All of them. They all came over at some point as immigrants and contributed in their own way. I have family that have been in the military. People made a lot of sacrifices, fighting for things that they believed in to make America what it is. You’re surrounded by all different colors and creeds and ethnicities and foods and culture. You’re surrounded by all this beauty. But I don’t understand the level of racism that still exists. There’s no reason for it. It’s still stuck in society and we can’t get rid of it. I’m really upset about it. I have privileges that aren’t there for other people. I don’t have to walk around and worry about somebody saying some profanity to me because of the color of my skin. We don’t have kids. With all that’s going on it’s almost hard to bring children into the world right now. With the unstable climate that we’re in and all the racism, I worry about it. Saying we’re going to build a wall doesn’t make sense. It’s not going to stop drug trafficking or the problems we have. It’s because we have such a deep level of poverty that those issues exist, when you have elites making billions of dollars a year and everybody is out here struggling and scrounging to make ends meet. It’s disgusting. But you can’t appease everybody, you can’t make everybody happy, so you do your best with the people around you."

"I was born in St. Louis Missouri. My grandfather is Cherokee. My mom is Black Albino and I was raised Muslim because of my father. I identify as American. To be an American has always been an honor but it’s a privilege that some people overlook unfortunately, and some forsake and take advantage of. Most forsake and walk unconscious to what is actually given to you as an American. We’re immigrants. America is born on immigrants, that’s what makes America America. It’s the most ignorant thing to say, “Oh, they’re an immigrant.” If we came from Europe, aren’t we immigrants? How did we get here? Aren’t we all pulled from some other place? What makes it different fifty years later? It’s the funniest thing, you can go talk to someone who’s working on their green card and they can know more about American culture than a person that’s born here. Why is that? Why isn’t anyone asking question like that? But they’re the immigrants, though they know more about our culture. Does that make sense?"