Achievement gaps, faculty of color attrition, and student disengagement persist even at institutions with strong stated equity commitments. This white paper argues that the missing explanation is organizational culture. Cultural Current Theory and the Bridge-Shield Paradox are applied to K-12, higher education, and community college contexts to explain how the informal culture of educational institutions produces the outcomes their equity policies are designed to prevent. The paper addresses stereotype threat as an organizational mechanism, cultural taxation of educators, and a four-step framework for building cultures that work for every student and educator.