Impactful Inclusion Toolkit

ACTIVITY 38Reconsider the Golden Rule

“Cultural integration doesn't happen by you boasting about your culture; it happens by you coming forward enthusiastically to learn about another culture.”

—Abhijit Naskar

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Most everyone is familiar with the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Luke 6:31). To put it another way by most non-Christians, “Treat people the way you want to be treated.” The message is consistent across many cultures and religions including Buddhism (“Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful” [Udana-Varga 5,1]) and Islam (“Do not let hatred of others lead you away from justice, but adhere to justice, for that is closer to awareness of God” [Qur'an 5:8]). In both religious and secular realms, it's considered sage advice that many can agree with. We may have been taught this adage at an early age when our parents spoke of the importance of being a friend in order to make a friend or when we called our siblings selfish for not sharing as we have shared. The lessons learned along the way contributed to our sense of fairness. Today, they are words that we continue to live by as adults. By the time we enter the workplace, we are certain of how we want to be treated and strive to treat others with the same respect. It seems like the perfect default when it comes to building inclusive and equitable workplace cultures. We simply treat everyone in accordance with our preferences in hopes that they'll reciprocate in ...