20 June 2012
A Cultural Misunderstanding Dr. Barbara Ehrenreich better known as a myth buster is best known for her non-fiction reportage, book reviews and social commentary. Her reviews, essays, op-eds, and feature articles have been widely published and have appeared in Harper 's Magazine, The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Life Magazine, The New Republic, and the New Statesman. Ms. Ehrenreich received her Ph.D. from The Rockefeller University in 1998, and was named "Humanist of the Year" by the American Humanist Association. In 2000 she taught essay-writing at the Graduate School of Journalism University of California, Berkeley. She has received honorary degrees from Reed College, the State University of New York at Old Westbury, the College of Wooster in Ohio, John Jay College, UMass-Lowell and La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.
She has been the recipient various awards, including a Ford Foundation Award for Humanistic Perspectives on Contemporary Society (1982), Sidney Hillman Award for journalism for the Harper 's article "Nickel and Dimed", which was published as a book (2000).
In 1993 I was in Zagreb Croatia, I walked into a little café on the corner of what we call in the states a “Neighborhood”. When I sat down a waitress came over what I thought to take my order, but she questioned me about my homeland and ethnicity. And with pride I informed her I was African American; she then asked me “is it the same as regular American”? I said yes and gave her a brief overview of my ancestral background. If I wasn’t taught my family traditions and given a sense culture, I would have given the same response as Dr. Ehrenreich in her essay when she was asked “none”.
Her philosophy is “Think for yourself” and “Try new things”. I believe her atheistic views on religion emanated from her parent’s disbelief in God, and their outlook on traditions as outdated and basically waste of time. She was raised by parents
Cited: Crenson, V. “Making memories: Family Traditions” Baltimore Jewish Times, (1996) http://search.proquest.com/docview/222829430?accountid=41690 Ellen, B. C. “Sharing family traditions.” Scholastic Early Childhood Today” (1998) http://search.proquest.com/docview/217906499?accountid=41690 Denton, M. L.”American religions and the family, and How faith traditions cope with modernization and democracy” Journal of Marriage and Family, (2008). http://search.proquest.com/docview/219770459?accountid=41690 http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/05/magazine/hers-cultural-baggage.html