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Nationwide protests condemning the death of George Floyd, and the violent, racist policing of black Americans that has occurred for years in many cities across the U.S, have apparently left some people exhausted.
After all, the unrest has arisen in the midst of a pandemic.
When one exhausted person expressed their desire to simply check-out and escape the stressful moment using television, Netflix' Nailed It! host Nicole Byer firmly and publicly opposed that idea.
The moment occurred on Instagram when someone commented on one of Byer's posts. Though Byers deleted the comment--to prevent unproductive online attacks towards the person--she did explain what was said.
According to Byer, who made a separate post to address the issue head-on, the person shared their desire to simply watch Nailed It!, a lighthearted baking contest in which three admittedly awful home bakers compete to win a cash prize:
"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.' "
Byer, a black woman, then outright condemned the escapism.
"That made me boo hoo hoo. That you will allow your kid to watch me but not stand up for me."
The host then launched into a lengthy script intended to make it easy for white parents to raise the consciousness of their white children and explain the motives behind recent unrest.
"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 f***ing (you can replace that with dang if ya kids are soft) thing about it."
She then told parents what to say to become even more specific.
"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."
Byer then advocated for ongoing work the parents should take on with their kids.
"Now once a week let's read about sh** (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."
Byer closed the post with a stern and non-negotiable sign-off.
"There I did it you can read it verbatim to your kids. Also I'm open to any additions."
"Raise kids who give a f*** and you gotta give a f***. #blacklivesmatter"
When Byers posted the same message to Twitter, it picked up some steam. people loved the no-nonsense message.
@BethSmithC132/Twitter
As the nationwide protests continue, there is no doubt that children are aware of what is happening and will benefit from some kind of explanation. Byer simply did her part to see that as an opportunity, not a crisis.