Interesting read and good points. A couple of additional thoughts that occurred to me while reading:

In a cosmopolitan, multicultural society such as America we are free to choose which aspect of our heritage we want to explore further—which of several possible identities we wish to emphasize and wear as our outer garment. I, for example, am a gay American Jew with Scots-Irish and English roots … I have choices!

Many other people in the world, including sizable numbers of our recent immigrants, come from cultures that are not worn so lightly. They don’t see any alternatives to the identity or identities imposed on them at birth and reinforced every day of their lives. They need and merit our understanding.

For most of us, however, embracing a particular identity as our primary way of being in the world can be a very positive thing if (a) it means that we are plumbing the depths of that aspect of our heritage and reclaiming the positive values and practices that lie buried within; and (2) we mindfully reject the temptation to play the “my ancestors were a helluva lot better than the savages in your family tree” game.