Heritage Prompt

10/2/2014

Consider some of the bigoted remarks, common myths and stereotypes people make about ethnic groups. Defend your heritage and talk about some of the more interesting and special cultural activities or physical differences.

There is nothing about my heritage that I feel I need to defend beyond one thing, which I will get to....

First though, there are stereotypes about the British heritage, mostly the Irish and Scottish parts, about drinking and fighting. To the best of my knowledge and experiences those claims are mostly true. We do enjoy a drink or fifteen. We do also like to fight, especially while drinking. What I will say about the ancestors of these nationalities of mine is that apart from time spent drinking and fighting, these people are very hard working and deserve the ability to spend time drinking after some of the crap they endured. Another aspect of this part of my heritage that is somehow joked about is the Irish's love for eating potatoes. Potatoes kick ass and everyone else loves them, so really the Irish should be thanked for popularizing this fantastic food. Lastly, the world enjoys the scotch, whiskey, and gin, among other British liqueurs, so stop being dicks and thank us already.

The part of my heritage I feel gets an unfair treatment are the Germans. Yes they also like to drink, we have them to thank for much of our beer culture including Oktoberfest. The unfairness is surrounding the unfortunate piece of history involving the Nazi regime. Clearly the holocaust was wrong, that goes without saying. The other contributions that are still benefiting society that were created by Germany's scientists and engineers have developed don't get enough credit. For example, the US interstate system and our moon landing wouldn't have happened as they did without Germans, and more specifically the otherwise terrible Nazi regime. It should be stated that only ten percent of the German population were supporters of the party at the time. So all the jokes and judgments based around the small segment of German history that involved the Nazis is unfair and completely biased. Just like the Irish and Scottish, Germans have contributed enough to society to make up for any indiscretions or mistakes of the past.