Activity 3: Enthnicity

My ethnicity is very diverse. I come from a line of people that came here from different countries, settled in the United States and started families. I am officially one quarter French, one quarter Dutch, one quarter Polish and one quarter English. Because of this diversity in my background, I don’t have any specific attachment to any one ethnicity. I find this sad, but it is something I can embrace in my adulthood and learn more about as I teach my daughter about her ancestry. My background has not influenced me at all growing up either. I do recall one side of my family being more proud of, and talking about their background more, however, and that was my Polish/French side.

My grandmother who was 100% French used to talk about the pride she had for her ancestry, but I didn’t have any specifics about it. I just remember her talking about being French and how the French had a lot of pride. I remember taking on that pride as I grew up too and feeling more connected to the French culture if for only that reason. My grandfather on the other hand was Polish and sadly I don’t know anything about the culture except that my father told me that he knows how to speak some Polish because of his dad.

On the other side of the family there were Dutch and English backgrounds. I have no connection to, nor do I know anything about those cultures. If anything, my lack of knowledge is a tell-tale sign to me that the further down the line our generations have gone, the traditions of each have not survived along with them. If anything, our generations of being in America and not having traditions related to our ethnicity has emptied our lives of what could be a rich learning experience.

In my circle of friends the only people I know that have any connection to their backgrounds are a couple that came from Canada. One has Native American ancestry and the other is Portuguese. I know that the way I view them is unique because of those facts alone. They don’t display, nor do I, any characteristics of my ethnicity. If I did become more present with my, and my husband’s ethnicity which is German, perhaps we could enrich our lives. If I did, I would discover a new sense of pride in where I came from and would learn how to embrace some of the culture, food and perhaps tradition to pass along to my daughter who is not only, French, Dutch, English and Polish, but also German. To be honest, I don’t think about ethnicity when I know and befriend people. The only time I was curious was with cultures that I wasn’t as familiar with and wanted to understand more. Perhaps I need to pay more attention, eh? (Spoken like a true Canadian)