"My own view is that cultural heritage is over-rated and if it is actively encouraged, it can lead to people actively retreating into a cultural ghetto. "

From reading these posts, it seems that in the UK there is a cultural trait to go overboard on aspects of heritage that creates some sort of belief that one has to rigidly follow a stereotype.

Why does ones ancestry need to govern a life? A "persecuted immigrant" in someones background could give cause to understand what others are going through in modern times, but there is no DNA that will change your life because of it anymore than anyone else.   Understanding the past is an important aspect that guides us to the future, but our past should not limit us to what we perceive as stereotypes.   This whole "class" idea is something that remains in a psyche of people in the UK where it has a different viewpoint in the U.S.    I would hope that we are free-thinkers and not governed by stereotypes of our own creation - we can easily go beyond that if we recognize the boundaries that we have created.