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People take part in health challenges all the time, especially as New Year's resolutions. We count our steps, track our water intake and count carbs and calories with the intention of being healthier in the new year. There's one more health challenge I want you to consider for 2025 -- the Anti-Racism Challenge.

According to UCLA Health, "structural racism and everyday discrimination can lead to many negative effects on health, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, preterm birth, anxiety, depression and suicide ideation." So, while you're working on your own health in the new year, consider the wellbeing of your community as a whole.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture defines being anti-racist as believing that racism is everyone's problem and knowing that we all have a role to play in stopping it.

The Anti-Racism Challenge was developed by two white women in 2020, after Breonna Taylor and George Floyd's murders at the hands of the police.

Di Kerrigan and her sister Deborah LaPorte, who both live in Louisville where Breonna Taylor was murdered, knew that they had to do something. "As I look back on it," Kerrigan said, "how embarrassed and ashamed I am that I had no idea the realities of what was going on within our city -- in our country."

The sisters wanted to respond but, "I've got to be honest," Kerrigan said, "I was so in my silo of being a very white woman." They had no idea what to do and they knew they weren't alone.

The sisters sent an email to 50 of their white friends, saying: "our silence is deafening now. This is the time to unite and form an outcry that cannot be denied." The email then asked for those who were interested in forming a unified response to the police killings to reply to the email and forward it to others. By the next morning they had over 100 emails that simply read, "Yes!"

At first their efforts meant publishing op-eds, writing to their politicians and taking to the streets in protest. In the summer of 2020, the outrage was palpable nationwide. However, by fall, Kerrigan and LaPorte could feel passions dwindling; people were dropping off. But the sisters did not want interest in justice to die. What happened to Taylor and Floyd were incidents within a systemic and ongoing American issue. They wanted to find a way to keep the realities of racism on the minds of white people.

At the same time Black leaders were calling out what issues needed to be addressed. Education was one of them.

"We've learned that our knowledge of history and culture is woefully incomplete," said Kerrigan. The sisters were hyperaware that if they didn't know, then certainly other white people like them were equally ignorant of the true state of inequities in America.

That's when they decided to create the four-week Anti-Racism Challenge, to help white people stay focused and engaged in racial justice. What started in Louisville is now spreading across the country.

Listen, Learn, Act is their nonprofit organization, and it's going into its fifth year. Their next four-week Anti-Racism Challenge begins Jan. 3. It's free to sign up, and you don't have to report back on anything. This is for your own personal development as a white ally.

How it works: Each week, participants receive an email with a list of 10-12 possible anti-racism activities to do on their own. The goal is to choose three of these to complete during the week.

Items on the list may include: reading an article, watching a film made by Black artists, patronizing a Black-owned business, writing a journal entry about your experiences or observations of racism, making a donation to a Black-led nonprofit or visiting an art exhibit.

I've added my name to the January Anti-Racism Challenge. I hope you'll join me. Let's start 2025 with the wellness of the entire community in mind. Go to ListenLearnAct.org to sign up.

Do you know anyone who's doing cool things to make the world a better place? I want to know. Send me an email at Bonnie@WriterBonnie.com. Check out Bonnie's weekly YouTube videos at https://www.youtube.com/bonniejeanfeldkamp. To find out more about Bonnie Jean Feldkamp and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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