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
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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.
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 DISGUSTING person blatantly told our kids NO then proceeded to hug the little white girl next to us!” (Via Instagram)
This isn't the first time such an incident has occurred at the amusement park though.
Since the release of the video by the girls' parents, a Twitter thread bringing light to this type of discrimination against Black kids has been started.
This thread features a few videos showing Black children getting ignored by the characters, proving this instance shared by Jodi, was not a mistake, caused by the inability to see, as claimed by Sesame Place since the release.
