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Sesame Place Under Fire After Black Mother Says Character Ignored Her Black Daughters

Some are calling it out for racism, whilst others call it a biased overreaction

Petiri Ira
Momentum
4 min readJul 19, 2022

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via PopCrush

A theme park in Philadelphia called Sesame Place has been trending after a video of Rosita, a Sesame Street muppet, went viral for appearing to dismiss hugs or to say hello to two young Black girls.

Following the incident, the mother has since called out Sesame Place for discrimination against her two daughters.

In the video, posted on the mother’s Instagram account, the two young girls are seen reaching out to the character in blue, Rosita. Also as shown in the video, the character shook their head “no” when the two girls reached their hands out toward the character. The character then walked away.

via latimes

This has been perceived as deliberate discrimination because the character proceeded to hug a white girl standing next to the family, as said by the two young girls' mother.

“We were on our way out of sesame place and the kids wanted to stop to see the characters,” the mom wrote on Instagram. “THIS…

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Momentum
Momentum

Published in Momentum

Momentum is a blog that captures and reflects the moment we find ourselves in, one where rampant anti-Black racism is leading to violence, trauma, protest, reflection, sorrow, and more. Momentum doesn’t look away when the news cycle shifts.

Petiri Ira
Petiri Ira

Written by Petiri Ira

Bylines in Screenshot Media, gal-dem, Malalafund, Momentum, ZORA. Contact: petiriira@gmail.com

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