The Undivided Race Initiative (URI) focuses on challenging racial division and affirming that we belong to one human family.
Every human being is a member of one humanity. Race, religion, gender identity, nationality, or cultural background should never be used to divide the human family or diminish the dignity of another person.
Different traditions, cultures, languages, and ways of life may sometimes make us unfamiliar to one another. But our differences should enrich humanity, not become forces that divide us.
Our shared human story reaches back hundreds of thousands of years. Fossils from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, reported in 2017 and dated to approximately 315,000 years ago, document an early stage of Homo sapiens and point to the deep and interconnected African origins of our species.
What matters is not that we look the same, but that our visible differences do not make us different kinds of human beings.
Skin color and physical appearance reflect the long and varied journeys of human populations. They should never become boundaries of human worth, dignity, or belonging.
We must learn to see the human being beyond the color of the skin.
We are many peoples, many cultures, and many traditions—but one humanity sharing one world.
The history of humanity and nature is all about migration!
Humanity’s history is a history of movement, adaptation, encounter, and relationship. People have migrated throughout time to survive, protect their families, pursue freedom, find opportunity, and build new homes.
Total Ethos welcomed immigrants regardless of race, nationality, religion, language, culture, or social position. We received them as guests of our house—not as outsiders, but as future members of society and participants in the future of the world.
We sought to be their mouth and ears when they needed to be heard and when unfamiliar systems were difficult to understand. Through education, employment support, advocacy, interpretation, and practical knowledge, we helped people find a home for their future:
a good place to live,
a safe place to dream,
and a welcoming place to grow.
A Brief History of Our Immigration Work
Total Ethos began serving immigrants during its years as a church. We offered free citizenship workshops, helped people complete their applications, and provided Korean-language interpretation and translation for citizenship interviews.
The work later helped incubate the establishment of a Korean American senior center and developed into authorized immigration legal service. The organization became the first Korean American nonprofit recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice to provide immigration legal services, and Catherine’s husband became the first Korean American DOJ-accredited representative.
Through the senior center and later the Empowerment Center, the work expanded to include immigration legal assistance, public education, job placement, advocacy, and community communication. We also held public-information events and press conferences with local USCIS leadership when immigration policies and procedures changed.
Our purpose was never limited to completing an application. We helped immigrants understand their new society, protect their rights, participate in their communities, and establish a lasting home for themselves and their families.
We Serve Immigrant Communities and help sustain their dreams, dignity, and freedom.