You know Nicole Byer — comedian, actor, and host of the hit Netflix baking competition Nailed It.
Last night, a fan commented on one of Nicole's Instagram posts, saying that they wanted to "keep their head down and just let their kids watch Nailed It," without talking to them about the issues of racial injustice that are making headlines right now.
Well, Nicole just posted a powerful statement on Instagram in response to this fan, and it's a must-read — especially if you're a white parent who thinks you don't have a responsibility to educate your kids about racism.
"Hi hello I’m Nicole. I host a tv show called @nailedit," she wrote. "[A] lot of kids watch the show. In an Instagram comment someone said they would 'keep their head down and just let their kids watch nailed it.'
"That made me boo hoo hoo. That you will allow your kid to watch me but not stand up for me. So I’ll do the work," she said. "I’ll write you a conversation to have with your white child."
Nicole then proceeded to write out a script that parents can use, which she described as a "good way to explain to kids #blacklivesmatter":
[Y]ou like this black lady right? She’s silly? She makes you tee hee hee? You would be sad if a police officer hurt her right? Well this is the current country we live in where someone you like can be hurt by the color of their skin and people in charge aren’t doing a fucking (you can replace that with dang if ya kids are soft) thing about it.
She also wrote out a suggestion for how to talk to your kids about the police:
And nice cops? There are no nice cops because if a cop was nice they wouldn’t watch and participate in violence against black and brown people. If cops were really nice they would have spoken out about police brutality years ago and maybe walked out on their precincts to send a message that they are against this. Instead they dress up like your GI Joe doll and are very mean.
"The curfews the helicopters the police in riot gear is all because black people have asked to not be killed...," she continued. "That’s it. There’s literally nothing else to it."
In her post, she also urged parents to educate their kids about the parts of black history that schools fail to teach:
Now once a week let’s read about shit (stuff for the soft kids) that happens to black people that doesn’t get covered in schools like Juneteenth, black Wall Street, how black people have influenced most of pop culture today and aren’t credited or it’s just [co-opted].
And Nicole suggested that parents share these conversations on social media, "to maybe inspire another white parent to do the same thing."
"There I did it," she concluded. "You can read [the script] verbatim to your kids. ... Raise kids who give a fuck and you gotta give a fuck #blacklivesmatter."
