More than any other holiday, Christmas is a truly multicultural celebration in the United States. It has to be, with so many holidays and traditions that are celebrated during the winter season. Some of these holidays include:

Christmas

Christmas is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that marks and honors the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Christmas is celebrated throughout the Christian population, but is also celebrated by many non-Christians as a secular, cultural festival. The holiday is widely celebrated around the world, including the United States. Because gift-giving and several other aspects of the holiday involve heightened economic activity among both Christians and non-Christians, Christmas has become a major event for many retailers.

Hanukkah

Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem ...

Call it “How to win friends and influence people,” “Getting to Yes“, or call it cross-cultural communications, but it’s all the same thing–how to communicate to come to agreement or understanding with people who are different from you to achieve your objective. In business, no matter how you slice it, it all flows back to making money. In day to day interactions, it may be about money or simply about maneuvering pleasantly through the transactions of daily life–a trip to the grocery store or a cab ride.

Where does family fit in, you may ask? I’ve always thought that if you are an expert at cross-cultural communications, you should be able to get along with anyone, including everyone in your family. If the old adage “practice makes perfect” rings true, family life is rich with opportunity to practice your cultural competency skills.

Diversity Best Practices captures diversity as “the wide spectrum of experiences, values, perspectives, and rated ...

The Pew Hispanic Center released a report showing that 1 out of every 2 (50.5%) people added to the population in the U.S. since 2000 are Hispanic.

The growth in the 1990s was 40%.

A point of interest to note is that the Latino population growth in the new century has been more a product of the natural increase (births minus deaths) of the existing population than it has been of new international migration.

As of mid-2007, Hispanics accounted for 15.1% of the total U.S. population. That number is expected to be 30% by 2050, according to the Census

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about Joe Six Pack’s race. NPR was speaking to voters about whether he is white, black, or brown. Macon D on his blog, “stuff white people do” came up with a list of 68 euphemisms for ‘white,’ and Joe Six Pack was on the list. Wikipedia identified the term as an evolution of John Q. Public, who is undoubtedly intended to be white, given the era of origin of that term. But other blogs and sites, such as urbandictionary.com, go on to qualify his whiteness:

“Average American moron, IQ 60, drinking beer, watching baseball and CNN, and believe everything his President says.”

What’s interesting, beyond the question of his race, is the politics of class and food that the image conveys. I noticed it when going from Newbury Street, Boston’s Rodeo drive, where only croissants and bagels were served at meetings, to working for City Government, where donuts were the more common fare. Is the sauce on the pasta (aka, ...