Store
By: Charlene Muhammad
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES – Faith And Community Empowerment (FACE) works to stop hate and promote peace by combatting the “Model Minority” myth and empowering faith community leaders to better serve underserved communities.
It trains faith leaders through education and provides advocacy so that the voiceless may have a voice.
FACE Executive Director Hyepin Im believes that myth which being portrays Asians as being White-adjacent and privileged robs them of needed investments in their community and solidarity with other communities of color.
“When you really look at the data, you’ll see that a racist system doesn’t discriminate who it discriminates against,” said Im.
For example, just in homeownership, 2019 statistics on the surface show a sizable Asian population was 61% to Whites at 66%. However, when disaggregated, Korean and Black homeownership rates were the same at 42%, said Im, citing research by the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development. It is a coalition of nearly 100 community-based organizations spanning 21 states and the Pacific Islands, working to improve the lives of those impoverished nationwide.
“When we share this kind of data, what I’ve seen is it really opens eyes, but then opens hearts,” said Im.
“For me, I think it is lifting up truth, and they say that, ‘you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free,’” she continued.
Her passion is to identify and dispel myths, such as those exacerbated during troubled times facing Black people and Koreans. She highlighted the controversial fatal shooting of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins by 49-year-old grocer Soon Ja Ju, and the horrific police mob-style beating of Black motorist Rodney King, both incidents occurring in L.A. County.
“At the end of the day, Latasha should never have died. Period,” said Im. But what media never reported from court records was that the store owners had been shoplifted 40 times a week. It was not justification, but a reality which could foster a different impact in race relations, mad it been publicized by media, she said.
Another myth Im rose is that store owners get special government money, denied the Black community. “If that is true, please tell me about the resources and opportunities,” she stated.
Her own father-in-law received they will fall of $20,000 and on that received a loan from a bank so he went in highly leveraged and under resourced when he bought his community store, according to Im. “He worked like a dog,” she said, and her mother-in-law in her 90s is still living in a rent controlled apartment.
Im’s passion is to identify more of those myths and combat them, to help free people from hating on each other.
“At the end of the day, because of those shared challenges, I believe in partnership, which creates mutuality and a stake in each other’s success. And that’s why our organization has been really committed to fostering partnerships in over the past 23 years. We’ve had over 1000 partners, from White House to Fortune 500 but also with different ethnic groups,” said Im.
