My Cultural Heritage
Ethnicity
and Race
I am part of the Kimmel Family. We are Caucasian and have European ancestry. My background consists of mainly German roots,
with some Irish and French. There are
some German American generalizations having to do with food and drinking beer. Hamburgers, bratwurst, sauerkraut, strudel, and pretzels are all foods commonly associated
with the German community. Other
generalizations are that we are cheap, blunt, and unfriendly. I do not find those stereotypes to be
true. While we do not spend on money
lavishly, I do not consider my family cheap but hard working. I think that we are very friendly and will
give the shirt off our back. Stereotypes
happen when people do not understand others or they have a belief that people
who look alike can all be grouped together.
One stereotype from the Caucasian race believed by some people is that
we “do not have a culture” or are not diverse.
In fact everyone has a culture, it has to deal with your religion,
beliefs, values, and how you celebrate holidays or traditions. All people are included under the word
diverse. Diversity encompasses all races
and ethnicities.
Family
As I was growing up, my father went
to work and my mother stayed home and took care of the house. My mom would get up in the morning with my
dad before he would leave for work and make breakfast for him and also pack a
lunch for him to take to work. As I got
older and went to school my mother would also pack a lunch for me and make sure
I got on the school bus on time. She
also took me to after school activities, like gymnastics, dance, tennis, or
swimming. My mother also took care of
all the meals, she taught me how to set the table and eventually cook on my
own. Family meals were important as we
would always sit down and eat together.
My father went to work and he took care of the maintenance of the
house. He would cut the grass, paint, and
fix anything broken. My father was
raised to try and figure out how to fix things on his own before asking for
help or paying someone to fix it. If he
had to pay for someone to fix the car, it was like a defeat. When he was growing up he used to fix all the
neighbors cars for free and only charge the cost of parts, because he enjoyed
working with his hands so much.
My family is the most important to
me. They have pushed me to do my best
and have always supported and loved me unconditionally. We believe that we should never take our time
together for granted as you are not guaranteed a tomorrow. We also value respect and honesty. I was taught that you should always use good
manners and live by the “golden rule” of treat others how you would like to be
treated. Kindness and caring goes a long
way. We also believe in helping others
and being thankful and grateful for help or gifts from other people.
We have many traditions that we
have developed throughout the years. During
Christmas we have a special pickle ornament that someone hides. The first person to find the ornament gets to
open the first gift. Birthdays are
another time we like to gather together.
When it’s your birthday, you get to pick out a special restaurant you
would like to eat at. We always give presents and have a birthday
cake as well. We also celebrate
Oktoberfest, by gathering together for family time that also involves eating
and drinking. During this time, mother
likes to make bratwurst, sauerkraut, pork, and potatoes.
Values
My family is Christian. I was raised in a Lutheran Church and
attended from infancy to adulthood.
Lutheran beliefs originally came from Martian Luther as he wanted to
depart from the Roman Catholic Church, for that reason many of the elements to
Lutheranism are similar to that of the catholic style of worship (Lutheranism,
n.d). The Lutheran Church is the oldest Protestant
Christian tradition dating back to 1517 (Lutheranism, n.d).
The Kimmel Family has a strong work ethic. Before I was of a legal working age my
parents encouraged me to work in our community whether it was pet sitting or
babysitting. I was 15-years old when I
got my first official job. Since that
day I have always had a job, sometimes two or three jobs at a time. Growing up, I was also responsible for paying
some of my bills, so that taught me lessons on savings and prioritizing my
spending. If I wanted to buy something,
I had to earn and save money on my own.
My parents have taught me to be a reliable, responsible, and diligent
employee and always show up and show a good attitude. Showing a good work ethic will get you better
positions and promotions.
Education is very important to our family. As I was going through middle school and high
school, my mother and father expected me to always try my best and never give
up. My parents always discussed with me
about going to college and expressed how earning a college degree is necessary
to make a better life. I was the first
college graduate in my family. My family
believes in constantly bettering yourself, whether it is through reading books
or taking classes, we believe never stop learning.
Other Information
Other Information
Being a Christian, my family celebrates the traditional
Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas.
We also celebrate Thanksgiving where my immediate family gathers
together and eat turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, sweet
potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Since my
father and both of my grandfathers are veterans, my family also celebrates
Memorial Day and Fourth of July. On Memorial
Day we hang American flags on our front porch and by our mailbox for
remembrance. My mother also displays the
flag that was draped over my grandfather’s coffin during his military style
funeral.
Assumptions and Stereotypes
Some stereotypes
and assumptions of Americans are that we always we eat fast food, are
overweight, and are obnoxious. While
there are times that we do eat fast food and we may eat more fast food than
people from other countries, we do like to cook and eat nutritious meals. I do not think that we are obnoxious people,
in fact I think we are very caring individuals and we also like to keep to
ourselves. Positive stereotypes of our
culture are that we are hardworking and optimistic. I feel that this is accurate to our
culture. My family works very hard and we
give everything we have to help others.
Even when our work day is over we go home and try to work to improve our
house. We try to look at the brighter
side of every situation and try to turn a negative into a positive.
Family Tree
My family tree has four generations present. All generations are from St. Louis,
Missouri. My parents and I are the only
family members that live outside the state of Missouri. I was born in Missouri and have lived in
Georgia since I was 10 years old. My
mother’s side is the Benz family. My
great-grandfather and great-grandmother on the Benz side are from Germany,
while my great-grandparents on the Jourdain side are from France. Both of my great-grandmothers were
homemakers. My great-grandfather
Jourdain owned various businesses. One
was a moving company. My mother is an
only child. She has a unique name,
Laurene, and is actually named after her father, Lawrence. Lawrence was a sheet metal worker. I was never able to meet my grandfather, he
died before I was born from cancer. My
grandmother Mildred lived to be 90 years old.
She was a key punch operator for the government.
On the Kimmel side, my great-parents were all
German. My Great-Grandfather
Eichermueller was a supervisor at a St. Louis power company, while My
Great-Grandfather Kimmel worked in a shoe factory. Both great-grandmothers were homemakers as
well as my grandma. My grandpa worked as
a telephone switchman.
Please see my family tree in the embedded box below:
References
Lutheranism (n.d) Religion Facts. Retrieved from: http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/denominations/lutheranism.htm
