Nickelodeon enraged some parents when it aired 8 minutes and 46 seconds of breathing on its channel -- how long George Floyd struggled with his murderer kneeling on his neck -- and showed this message to kids:

we are all part of the change #blacklivesmatter
✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻 pic.twitter.com/Y3Fzvob54X

— Nickelodeon (@Nickelodeon) June 1, 2020

There were the usual lazy parents decrying the channel because they'd have to actually talk to their kids about a complex subject that, as white people, they usually don't have. Meanwhile, black parents have conversations with their children as soon as they're old enough to be out in the world. Possibly even before their children are out in the world, depending on a myriad of factors.

The point is, talking to your children about racism and what is happening around the world as people protest against police brutality and the constant murder of black people at the hands of those supposed to serve and protect is no longer something that can be put off. Not that it ever really was, to be honest.

Enter Nicole Byer, hilarious comedienne, sometime guest on How Did This Get Made, and host of Nailed It! on Netflix. After someone on her Instagram said they were just going to bury their head in the sand and turn on Nailed It! for their kids to watch during the protests, Nicole decided that this was a perfect jumping-off point for parents to talk to their kids about everything happening.

Nicole did not owe it to anyone to tell them how to speak to their white children, by the way.

Here I posted it on Instagram but twitter can have it too... I wrote something to help your white children understand what's going on... I did the work now you do some pic.twitter.com/9DsKALVx4n

— nicole byer (@nicolebyer) June 2, 2020

Hi hello I'm Nicole. I host a tv show called @nailedit 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." (I turned off the comments so ya can't find it and attack that person also dunno their ethnicity or anything about them)

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 I'll write you a conversation to have with your white child

A good way to explain to kids #blacklivesmatter : "you 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. So they are protesting, and the looters... well some of it is staged as a distraction some are opportunistic and some are people who've been oppressed for so long it bursts. 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... that's it. There's literally nothing else to it. 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-oped... and if you do this post about. Post about the black history you teach your white kid to maybe inspire another white parent to do the same thing.

There I did it you can read it verbatim to your kids. Also I'm open to any additions.

Raise kids who give a fuck and you gotta give a fuck
#blacklivesmatter

Educate yourself, educate your children, and do better.