4/25 Shah and Monkey Dance

Monkey dance is a documentary about the Cambodian youth in the United State and their life being the children of Khmer Rouge's refugee. It is a interesting documentary that follow the life of immigrant children and how they cope with their life living in what is consider to be the slum, where gang activity is rampant. The youth revolts through daily resistance the stereotype and expectation that is put onto them by society. For the first youth, both of his brothers drop out of school; however he tries to be the responsible one in the family and has the desire to finish high school. He also challenges the stereotype that Asian aren't very good at sport because he is in his school's gymnastic team. For the second youth whose sister ended in jail because she shot her boyfriend, she resists every day the social pressure that she will one day ended up like her sister in jail simply because of her blood tie. She challenge this notion by having a normal life with her life and a healthy social life.


The article “The Political of Race: Political Identity and the Struggle for Social Rights” by Shah talks about the struggle that Laotian community has to go through to secure rights that they deserve as citizens of the United States. The first part of the article talk about a fire at a factory that exposes the lack a good emergency code. There was not a multilingual emergency system in place so Laotian elders did not know how to react when there was an emergency. Also the emergency phone call came in late so that people were already expose to the gas. This problem with elders who are immigrants are still present 'till these day. My aunt's mother and father are both immigrant who speak very little English so they have trouble doing even very small communication. I could not fathom the thought of what would happen if there is no multilingual emergency system in place and an emergency happen. I feel like it is only right if these elders as people are treated as an equal citizens and given bare minimum when it comes to emergency situtation.

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