PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A Sesame Street-themed amusement park has apologized and promised more training for its employees after a video showing a costumed character waving off two 6-year-old Black girls during a parade went viral online.
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The nine-second video, posted to Instagram on Saturday by Jodi Brown, the mother of one of the girls, showed the character Rosita high-fiving a white child and woman, then gesturing “no” and walking away from the two girls who had their arms stretched out for a hug and high-five during the parade at Sesame Place in Langhorne, outside Philadelphia.
“I will never step foot in @sesameplace ever again,” Brown said online.
The family’s lawyer, B’Ivory LaMarr, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the family is appalled and disturbed by the incident and “the injuries propagated to their children.”
In an initial statement Sunday, Sesame Place said the park and its employees stand for “inclusivity and equality in all forms.” The statement also noted that performers sometimes miss requests for hugs because the costumes they wear make it difficult to see at lower levels.
“The Rosita performer did not intentionally ignore the girls and is devastated by the misunderstanding,” the statement said.
However, many people expressed outrage online and some called for a boycott of the amusement park.
The park issued a second statement Monday, apologizing again and promising that it was “taking action to do better.” Among those efforts would be inclusivity training for employees.
Both statements and the video triggered a stark response on social media, which LaMarr said helped shed a light on “the existence of these issues.”
“A lot of African Americans tend to become very passive because we unfortunately are accustomed to dealing with this type of racism in various spaces,” he said.
Sesame Place has been the official “Sesame Street” theme park for more than four decades. It opened in 1980.
“You would expect a reputable organization the one as well revered as Sesame Street and Sesame Place to stand on those principles and values in which they portray,” LaMarr said. “Instead, what this family saw was a company that comes out and they’re very dismissive of the harms that were caused.”
Watch the posted video. The cartoon actor clearly blew off those two girls. How would you feel if they were your kids?
watch the video he intentionally skips them – if they were charedi looking and he snubbed them everyone hear would be screaming it’s a shame that our community has so many frauds – be consistent !
Definitely looks like a snub. Mom and lawyer probably exaggerating. But it’s 2022. Behave better.
Watch the video. Something is up with this character. Plus after he went after these kids he was high fiving the other children afterwards according to the mother.
Not sure if true or not but there are reports that this same Sesame Place character has done the same to other children of color.
Now imagine if this happened to some Frum kids. I think there would be a major uproar and rightfully so.
If u look at the video CAREFULLY
THE SESAME STREET CHARACHTER HIGH FIVED A WHITE PERSON THEN REFUSED FURTHER CONTACT WITH WHITE PERSON
THEN
CONTINUED REFUSING CONTACT WITH OTHERS
HAPOENNED TO BE LITTLE BLACK GIRLS
BUT FIRST REFUSAL WAS WIRH WHITEY
react to this EXACTLY how you would react if they had been 2 Jewish girls.
Its wrong when its done to use and its just as wrong when its done to African Americans
Side note: its possible it was a mistake but it does not look like it was, it seems to be deliberate
We all seem to be sure that the person inside that costume was white…
Looks like someone at the end of the clip says “gotta stay back”. Perhaps they needed to be behind the yellow line to high-five the characters. That could explain it without resorting to seeing weird public intentional glaring, but unlikely, racism.
Takes training to not be an idiot? How many years? Does he get a diploma?
The same racists here on VIN (and elsewhere) that downplay this disgusting display of racism by the costumed employee and Sesame Place’s tone-deaf response are very likely the same people who will scream “ANTISEMITISM!” when something not even 1/10th as bad happens to a Jew.
You want to help stop antisemitism? Just stop promoting racism. Promoting racism gives cover to those that promote antisemitism, because they’re basically the same thing.
I wonder what the person inside the costume was thinking.
I think this is a really sad episode but from what I have heard, visibility in those suits is narrow and dimmed by a screenlike material covering the eye area. It is also really hot in there and it was in the high 80’s. This may have been an avoidable but understandable mistake.
They deserve an apology and some time with the characters but this is probably not an intended racial incident.
I just had an uber driver come to airport to pick up my family. He saw we are Jewish and cancelled the ride.
9 seconds? Other videos exist showing more, including hugging bunch of coloured girls. Apparently the costumed character was waving NO to someone (off screen) standing behind the little girls (apparently someone wanted the costumed character to do something aga8ints the rules). And despite the illusion these costumes are made to present, it is not possible in these costumes to see “down” when look ahead.
Seems some teenaged actor screwed up.
Just down the street from my house, BTW.
Wonder how many other white and black kids were missed.
If VIN would only post the latest black girl antiwhite crime slashing a white woman on the bus?
Blacks in general are not compatible with a western society.
where is Nujj to point out racism? PapaBarAbba maybe will edit it out.
What’s the issue? The costume person was practicing social distancing and no touching. Vinishmartem is no laughing matter. What kind of reckless parent allows their young children to go maskless and touch others getting germs. We should be moser these kids to authority for endangering others. Real rodefs.
Dig up.issues where there are none
Lawyer? Why the need for a lawyer? Such gold-digging snowflakes. These spoiled brats give a bad name to blacks.
It’s good the kids weren’t Jewish or we’d be screaming, “It’s 1930’s Germany!” and “This is the start of another Holocaust!” So some Black kids got snubbed. Forget about it. It only matters when it happens to Jews.