Cultural Baggage

“Cultural Baggage” was written by Barbara Ehrenreich for the New York Times Magazine in 1992. Her main idea for her essay is that while never really proclaiming her Anglo-Celtic heritage, she still carried with her morals and beliefs traced back to her ancestors. These morals were then realized by Ehrenreich’s children in that the ethnicity of “none” or by discarding ethnicity all together is how the world should be; similar to John Lennon’s beliefs.
I happen to be very proud of my German, Irish, and Czech heritage. However, I understand where Ehrenreich is coming from when she states that it is hard to acquire ancestral pride having no one culture to proclaim. Although I find pride within my multi-national ancestors, I do like how Barbara’s children feel that having ethnicity can be a bad thing. Throughout the history of mankind, different ethnic groups have been discriminated against. I feel that getting in this notion of equality; we should disregard ethnicity as a difference of human qualities, and should start looking at it in a celebratory fashion. For example, I feel international fairs are a great way to gain appreciations for other cultures. Moreover, events like the Taste of Chicago are great because so many unique and different styles of food from different cultural groups and restaurants within Chicago can be experienced and enjoyed.