Mixed feelings.
Parts of this episode are done very well, particularly given the format. There's a limit to how detailed a Disney channel kidcom can get in regards to Holocaust victims and American slaves, but they touched on it and you really get a sense of how difficult both Zay and Farkle find it to deal with that part of their heritage.
Maya moving from reducing Ireland to a handful of confused stereotypes (leprechauns, potatoes, Scottish bagpipes, and Irish soap, dear Lord) to appreciating the artistic history that Ireland has was a nice touch and didn't take up a disproportionate amount of narrative space.
Lucas didn't really have a storyline in this episode. Which I'm okay with.
I really wish that Riley's end of this had been handled better. Her great-grandparents lived in San Francisco and briefly interacted with the Chinese-American community there! ...okay, so? It didn't really seem to be in keeping with the point of either this episode or the assignment. And we all know the Matthews aren't American-American, i.e. of Native heritage, which I wish had gotten pointed out while she was insisting that her only heritage was American. I don't know, even having her do some more research and realize that her ethnic heritage is all over the place (or all over Europe, which seems more likely) would've felt like a better ending than "my family is American and that's all I really need to know".
Plus I could've lived without the random bits of "America is the best" sprinkled in, given both the current (horrible) political climate and America's long and ugly imperial history, but whatever it's a Disney channel kidcom I guess I shouldn't have expected anything else on that front.
I didn't love the Auggie subplot, which unlike Maya's did seem to take up a disproportionate amount of narrative space and also just felt kind of tonally inappropriate. I'm used to some mood whiplash with this show, but this felt extreme. Especially the end where it goes immediately from Zay and Farkle quietly offering each other support over the cold-blooded genocide their ancestors were put through straight to Auggie, Ava, Rafi, and Marisol salsa-dancing and giving foot massages, wtf.
And I would like to point out again that it's always nice when the other kids in the class get to speak. Hello, Nigel. "I didn't even know you could talk and you can speak two languages?!"