Previously, I asked you to figure out where you might lie along the Cultural Competence Continuum. Chances are, in the United States or not, your organization is suffering from "cultural blindness." You make sure there's no overt discrimination and the language is free of racial epithets, but culture isn't freely discussed.
The political correctness movement of the early nineties scared many Americans into a state of "don't ask, don't tell" for anything obviously cultural. For instance, one camp I worked at forbids the wearing of any T-shirts by the staff that state any sort of religious belief (i.e., "WWJD" on the shirt pocket). Instead of celebrating the diversity of spiritual traditions represented on the staff, the camp instead chose to completely eliminate all mention of religion. For staff, campers and parents with strong beliefs and cultural ties, such policies can be terribly alienating.
A shift in attitude is necessitated by today's world. Instead of following the "Golden Rule" (i.e. treat others as you would wish to be treated), the twenty-first century necessitates the "Platinum Rules" (i.e., treat others as they wish to be treated).
If we indeed treat everybody equally (the equivalent of everyone wearing a plain navy blue T-shirt everyday), we're doing them a disservice. Where diversity is masked and not celebrated, we feel depressed. How sad to deny expression of so much of ourselves, that is, our culture.
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