Panelists: Samuel Hyun, Public Speaker, and Director of Federal Relations for the City of Boston
Arnold Mikolo, (TBC) Manchester, NH
Andres Meija, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice, Exeter Region Cooperative School District (SAU 16)

Moderator: Tina Kim Philibotte, Ph.D. candidate and Chief Equity Officer, Manchester School District

Since the end of WWII, the perceived success of Asian Americans – who have been wrongly portrayed as a monolithic group – has led white apologists to cast this group as the “model minority.” The lack of cross-racial conversations keeps people isolated in their own racial groups at the expense of personal, professional, and societal growth.

This panel will explore what happens when racialized groups begin to dialogue. Panelists will discuss the myth of the model minority, what happens when language is used as a social construct to divide, and what happens when the American racial hierarchy forces one to choose a particular identity or culture over another. How can we speak openly and honestly in cross-racial conversations?