Yeah, we all have a heritage, but it is the individual who creates that heritage, like building a building, one person, one brick, at a time.
When someone thinks of themselves as a people, they shoulder the burdens of all wrongs done by and to that people, they assume the guilt, the pain, the joy, the resentment, the forgiveness, the mercy, the achievements--good and bad--of their entire people.
When it is just one person being one person, they only own their own triumphs and failure, their own sins, their own salvation, and suddenly they are empowered because while they cannot change the rest of their people (except by leadership or example), they can change what they themselves do, how they act, how they interact, and be responsible for that.
If enough people do that, the collective “the people” will change, too.