I walk into the Biola Caf with my roommate, grab a plate of teriyaki chicken pizza and a bowl of Indian-style curry and proceed to scout out a table. A half turn to my right, I see a table occupied by towering African American students eating with a white girl half their size. Directly in front of me, a Filipino guy and a Japanese girl sporting BASA T-shirts head towards the door together. I smile to myself and mentally pat Biola on the back for its diversity –– from the food, to the people, to the organizations. Seeing how far we have come from discrimination and painfully-drawn racial lines is amazing, but is this all there is to diversity?

Ask anyone walking the streets of Los Angeles what they think when they hear “diversity” and they’ll tell you something along the lines of integration or embracing and accepting those of other ethnicities. Today’s society has come to define multiculturalism and diversity solely on terms of race.

The very dictionary definition of diversity is, according to dictionary.com, “the state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness.” This unlikeness is everywhere, all around us. People groups are divided based on their professional fields, the music they listen to, their political affiliations, the particular region they are from, the abilities or disabilities they have, etc. –– not just their ethnic background.

I completely understand that racial diversity has been a tremendous difficulty in our nation, and most discrimination and prejudice occurs in relation to racial tensions. It is reasonable that there is a heavy emphasis on ethnic diversity, but we must not forget that there is more to it than just the color of skin. If we have friends of every different race, yet still refuse to associate with a girl with autism or an emo-looking guy with streaks in his hair, we still have not achieved diversity. I see a group of girls walking to class together, each a different ethnicity, but who all went to the same private high school and come from the same socioeconomic background. I see a group of athletes going to shoot some hoops at the basketball court, who are racially diverse, but who deny the skinny white guy’s request to join in on the game.

Even when looking through a colorblind lens, separation and exclusion exists between different people groups. The issue of diversity still stands.

I am not suggesting there should be programs designed to embrace every single people group out there, and I completely acknowledge the fact that, overall, Biola is a welcoming environment to everyone, a fact I take pride in about my school. We are all here because of a common calling; we share a faith in Jesus Christ, as well as a desire to seek Him. We know that God created each of us, and we strive to love others different from ourselves. The “Biola bubble” is definitely making substantial progress when it comes down to diversity, and I wholeheartedly applaud the efforts in celebrating other cultures.

I simply want to encourage this continued progress and urge you to remember the wide scope of multiculturalism. When we are looking to love those who are different than ourselves, we need to remember that we are different in more ways than just our ethnic backgrounds.