Cambodian Donut Shops & Inter-Ethnic Conflicts

          For the presentation on the Cambodian Donut Shop, I thought it was pretty interesting because I’ve never actually heard or even considered this trend in donut shops throughout the country.  It seems that the Jason had already done some pretty basic research on this topic already since he explained about how it was an internship that he worked on.  The information that he presented was pretty straight to the point and focused.  I really enjoyed the article that he gave to the class because it gave us background knowledge of how the whole Cambodian donut business started and the demise of the initial business owner. 

Although the topic was covered really well, I feel like it is a little too broad to write a research paper on.  If Jason plans to write his research paper on this, the information he has can still be used, but he can also add on more about the conflicts and struggles that these family owned business encounter in their community.  The clip that he showed in class did a great job at portraying the discrimination and economic struggles that these owners go through.  So if he can implement these things into his essay, I think it will make his essay really strong.

            For the presentation on Inter-ethnic conflicts in the South, I thought that their class discussions very helpful in getting the class more interactive.  Because the topic of research is something that many of the students in class can relate, I thought that the discussion really helped us reflect on how our school system compare to the participants’.  In terms of the presentation, the group’s analysis and critique of the article was really on point.  The background information given was really brief and concise which offered more time for other information and discussion.  For one of the concept that was presented, the Black-and-White view, I thought that there could have been a little more information or examples given because some of the students in the group discussion seemed a little confused when we had to answer a question that pertained to it.   

Aside from that, the solutions that were presented in the article and articulated by the presenters were very clear.  It would be great if the students suggest more solutions that can also be use to improve the problems in the school AND the community.  For example, the film that we watched, “Eating Welfare,” has a strong message about Southeast Asian American youth empowerment and voice.  Based on the collaboration of many youth, a movement started which gave these youth hope to change and speak out.  If a suggested collaboration of YOUTH programs were available, it would create some sort of solidarity between marginalized groups and dominant groups. 

          Another suggestion that I think would be helpful for their research is the improvements that they can make from the article’s research.  As part of SAFE, these presenters can conduct a similar research to see if this outdated research still applies to the youth in the Sacramento area.  If this was conducted at the outreach schools, I think it would have been really interesting to see if these students still feel the same way despite the availability of ESL classes and ethnic-related organizations. 


-Brenda Vue