Lauren Gieseking

Parent and facilitator, Amy Narishkin leads Linda Gieseking, Linda DeCosta, Carol Depke and six other moms in a book study to find a way to end the silence in west county after the events in Ferguson and New York. Narishkin started a business to help the dominate culture, white middle class males, become allies for minority cultures. “My goal is to train the trainer, so the parents can enter with their circle of friends and have their own book studies,” Narishkin said.

Fridays at Six North Cafe, parent Amy Narishkin, Ph.D, leads parents in discussions about race and culture.

“I decided to help them when we were starting to train the staff on having conversations and supporting kids around the time of the Ferguson events,” Assistant Principal Jennifer Sebold said. “We used an article by one of our parents, Doctor Narishkin.”

After contacting Narishkin, Sebold began to converse with other parents who seemed interested or had children that were interested. Meetings began Jan. 23.

“We are all growing and learning together, particularly becoming more aware of dominant white culture,” Narishkin said.

Questions that the parents are discussing include: How can white people become better allies of people from minority cultures? What is white culture and privilege? How do we invite more people (particularly of dominant culture) into this conversation and help them feel safe?

“Our diverse group of moms, three African American, two Muslim, one Chinese and five White-of various economic backgrounds, are reading and reflecting on Debby Irving’s story Waking Up White,” Narishkin said.

“Waking up White” was written to stir up conversations on race as a new perspective on bias, stereotypes, manners and tolerance.

“It has been eye opening to read the story of a woman who really had no concept of what life is like outside of her community until she was forced to confront it later in life and how it forced her to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew,” parent Lisa Jackson said.

Jackson met with Sebold, Narishkin and counselor Carly Roach to find a way to start talking about understanding and appreciating diversity.

“I joined because I believe in most things in life you are either part of the solution or part of the problem,” Jackson said. “I decided that if I wanted to help West grow as a community, I needed to be an active part of the discussion.”

Their goal is to educate families about race. At the moment it is only about race, but they are planning it to project out into more. Narishkin can be contacted at [email protected]

“When we open ourselves up to just talking to people that are different than us we can knock down the barriers between groups and get to know people,” Jackson said.