Media Discussions Matter  

By Dr. Kweli Zukeri, The Liberation Lab Co-Founder

03/31/25

If you're raising Black tweens or teens today, you already know: Parenting in a media-filled world is an everyday balancing act. From TikTok trends and YouTube influencers to bingeable shows and viral videos, our kids are constantly absorbing content—sometimes passively, sometimes passionately, and always in large doses.

For Black children, this content isn’t just entertainment. It’s a steady stream of messages about who they are, what their worth is, and where they fit in. Too often, those messages are rooted in stereotypes, erasure, or distorted narratives that can quietly shape identity, confidence, and worldview.

The American Psychological Association (APA) recently released a research-based guide to support families navigating this exact challenge. One of their strongest recommendations is simple but powerful: co-watch content with your child—even the hard stuff—and have open, non-judgmental conversations about it. This kind of engagement, the APA notes, helps kids build critical thinking skills and become more intentional media consumers.

It’s solid advice. But let’s be real: finding the time, emotional energy, and language to spark those conversations? Not always easy.

That’s where The Liberation Lab discussion guides come in.

Created for parents, educators, and mentors of Black youth, these guides are designed to make those critical conversations easier to start and more impactful to have. They don’t require you to sit through entire shows or movies. Instead, they give you a window into the themes, key moments, and questions that matter—so you can jump into the dialogue when the opportunity arises.

The guides can cover everything from animated series to current events, from superhero stories to real-life activism. They invite young people to explore identity, justice, joy, and resilience while giving parents a culturally grounded, user-friendly tool to support that journey.

Think of it this way: when we shift screen time into a space for reflection, when we help our kids ask, “What’s really going on here?”—we’re not just watching content. We’re helping them develop critical consciousness.

This matters deeply for Black children, who need space to see themselves fully and think critically about the messages they’re surrounded by. The Liberation Lab guides are one way to create that space—without pressure, without perfection, and always with love at the center.

Parenting today takes patience, flexibility, and a community of support. You don’t have to do it alone. These guides are here to walk with you, to help turn everyday media moments into chances for growth, confidence, and clarity.

Explore some of our guides and please contact us if you have suggestions for media for which you think we should create a guide and/or if you want to find ways to collaborate on educating your students or children. Let’s raise them wide awake—together.