Exploring Chicago's Railways with Ben Kasun (What My Ethnicity Means to Me)

What My Ethnicity Means to Me
When I conducted my poll on Instagram you guys said you wanted to hear a personal story that was deep and meaningful, so rather than doing an explicit expose on someone, I thought I'd talk a bit about my background and how it shaped me to who I am today. I get a lot of questions that ask what ethnicity I am. To put this question to rest: I'm Polish, Northern Irish, Austrian and German. I primarily identify as mostly Polish and Irish. As to why, here's a spark-notes version of what my ethnicity means to me:

I feel an extremely close connection to my roots, through food and direct connections/stories of the places we're from. Through stories and mysteries about how we came to be who we are, my family's background has always been of interest to me. While my mom's family does not talk about their history, my dad's family is an open book. Both through memorabilia and records,  my dad's family can trace back all of our family members.

​I was raised with a very close connection to my Dad's family. My grandma and great-grandma lived less than 30 mins away from where my parents were at and would spend a lot of time with my siblings and I as kids (and they still spend a lot of time with us as adults, both on the phone and in person). My great-grandma is (yes she's still alive at 101 years old) from Poland and my great-grandpa was from Austria. Every holiday, we'd eat Polish food, since it was my great-grandma preparing all the meals, and DAMN were they good! Any holiday was essentially an excuse to celebrate who we are and our history.

All in all, as time has gone on, I've become more and more proud of who I am and who my family is.  Being Polish and Irish means embracing all the foods, culture, festivities and every unique aspect and tradition in my family. It's a strong part of my identity and who I am as a person, and I couldn't be more proud.

​Photography: Ben Kasun