Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017)

While there is no doubt about the importance of teaching children — especially White children — about racism and tolerance, it can sometimes be a tricky road to navigate. On the one hand, you’ve got the direct approach, mostly aimed at younger children. On the other hand, there’s…doing nothing at all, which is absolutely unacceptable. Somewhere in the middle, we find pop culture: the media our children consume, and are influenced by, as they grow older and move through the world.

If you are a parent looking for diversity in your grade- and middle-schoolers' TV shows, here are two that seamlessly share messages of inclusivity without beating viewers over the head. The diversity in these shows just is, and best of all — there are actual actors of color behind the microphones.

On the surface, The Amazing World of Gumball might seem like a spastic, absurdist version of The Simpsons, and in some ways, that’s exactly what it is: a family of 5 in a generic American suburb, interacting with a long list of colorful neighbors and friends. Look closer, though, because Gumball is really so much more.

Because none of the characters are human or even humanoid, the diversity isn’t immediately obvious. However, within the Watterson family, you already have a mixed marriage between a blue cat and a pink bunny, and three children including an adopted goldfish. The goldfish, Darwin, is voiced by a series of young Black actors (Kwesi Boakye; Terrell Ransom Jr.; Christian J. Simon; and Donielle T. Hansley Jr.). Unlike certain beloved shows of the 80s, there’s never the sense that the Wattersons adopted Darwin because he’s a charity case. He’s just, you know, part of the family. In fact, it was Gumball and Darwin’s love for each other that brought Darwin back to the Wattersons when he got lost and they thought he was dead.