Diversity Challenges L.A., Bishop Says

Ethnic diversity in Los Angeles remains a “great challenge” for Southern Californians, many of whom do not associate with those outside their cultural or ethnic group, the Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles said this week.

“Lots of wonderful things do happen,” said the Rt. Rev. Frederick H. Borsch. “But there’s also a great challenge. People tend to want to get together with people like themselves,” he told 350 civic, business and religious leaders attending a National Conference for Community and Justice dinner in Beverly Hills.

“The difficulty is when that begins to turn into prejudice with other people--and . . . when prejudice is in the hands of people with power,” Borsch said in accepting the conference’s humanitarian of the year award.

In a city with 240 distinct ethnic groups with 10,000 or more members each, Borsch said, everyone must “strive to work against some things that divide people.” But he said the task can be formidable. “It’s a struggle I don’t think we should underestimate. We kid ourselves that it is not.”

Education and a deep appreciation of religious faith, he said, can work for change. “We all have a lot more work to do,” he said. “Let’s get on with it.”

Also receiving humanitarian of the year awards were Keith P. Russell, chairman of Mellon Financial Group--West Coast, and Andrea Van de Camp, chairwoman of Sotheby’s West Coast.