LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville woman and her sister are hoping more people can learn and become allies. Their new “Listen, Learn, Act” challenge aims to combat racism.
The duo came up with the challenge, which sort of resembles a fitness challenge.
“We decided that we would ask some of these women if they wanted to join us in some kind of unified response to what had happened to Breonna Taylor, and we had no idea what that response might be,” Deborah Laporte explained.
Standing at the Unknown Project at the banks of the Ohio River, Laporte reflected on how she and her sister, who lives out of the state, compiled a list of contacts to send gauge their interest in combating racism.
“The next morning, we were so surprised. We opened our emails and saw that 100 people had written back,” she said. “So we felt we had touched a nerve.”
What flooded their inboxes lead to actions.
“We knew it needed to be a communal effort. It needed to be a group of people rather than just the two of us," Laporte said.
So their efforts led to the creation of Listen, Learn, Act.
“And we felt strongly that it should be a lot of White women because we’re the largest demographic in this country, and yet we tend to be the play creators, the passive ones that don’t want to bring up the harsh, hard conversations,” she said. “They don’t want to take a stand. And yet we know a lot of women that hate this injustice but don’t know what to do about it.”
Their anti-racism challenge exposes the participant to an array of thoughts, hoping to be part of the solution.
“We have been so conditioned to look at the world through white eyes and to see every problem with white solutions and to have the default mode of white,” Laporte said. “We want to be some part of the solution. We want to be in support of the solution.”
And activities range from reading articles and books to something like the Department of Justice’s report on LMPD, among many other things.
“We have listened to the Black community and tried to learn from their perspective how we can be in service and how we can be true allies,” Laporte said.
The project ultimately aims to generate critical thinking to combat racism, Laporte said. The next challenge will take place in October.