Donuts: A Symbol of Resilience and Autonomy

Cambodian refugees turned America's most ordinary pastry into their lifeline for survival.

Ted Ngoy fled the Khmer Rouge regime in 1975 with his family and ended up working three

jobs just to survive. One night as a gas station attendant, a coworker brought him a donut.

That single moment changed everything. Within years, Cambodians owned eighty percent of

California's donut shops. But here's what gets me. The article states

that donut shops offer a means of owning tangible property and reaping the benefits of

one's own labor, two things that had been taken away by the Khmer Rouge. This quote hits

different when you understand what was stolen from them. The Khmer Rouge