What's going on with Sesame Street is unacceptable

[TMC]

The Sesame Street incident is proof that racism can pop up anywhere.

At Sesame Place, the theme park for Sesame Street, there was an incident where a performer in the Rosita costume was greeting all the white parents and their children, but ignored the two black girls who were trying to say hi. The performer waved their hands in a no gesture and walked away. This is the video that started it all. After this was released to the public, more videos came out from other people about how this same performer was being rude towards other black children. As of right now, it has not been revealed who the person in the Rosita costume is.

[JO Sweet Heart]

Getting rid of Northern Calloway (David) to me was unacceptable. In other words, thank you for letting me know how much about the show has not changed.

God bless you always!!!

Holly (a girl who will forever love that late beautiful precious masterpiece of a gentleman)

[MIKEPR]

There was a reason for it.

Just read the 2008 Street Gang book that was published.

[JO Sweet Heart]

^^^ Just because a book is written doesn't mean that anything in it is 100% true. Anything can be written just to make something more worth whatever you have to pay for it. Without whatever is said in there about Northern, there is no telling how boring the book would've ended up being.

God bless you always!!!

Holly (a girl who will forever love him)

[Dude111]

Everything they did to SS since 1992 is a disgrace......

That ELMO is aweful.......... Along with everything else

[JO Sweet Heart]

^^^ If it is true that the show is now only 30 minutes long instead of the hour that it used to be, why was all of that changed?

God bless you always!!!

Holly

[TMC]

Sesame Workshop Promises Bias Training for Sesame Place Staff After Viral Video Incident

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, has responded to a viral video that appears to depict an incident of racial bias that occurred at Sesame Place Philadelphia over the weekend.

On Sunday morning, digital strategist Leslie Mac posted a video to Twitter from her great-niece’s 4th birthday celebration over the weekend. In the nine-second clip, two little girls from the party, both Black, stand on the sidelines of the parade of characters and extend their arms toward a performer dressed in a Rosita costume. Rosita high-fives other park visitors before waving off the two girls, wagging her head as she turns away from them.

“This is how #SesamePlace treated these beautiful Black children,” Mac captioned the video, which has generated 7.3 million views as of press time. As the video went viral on Monday, other people began sharing similar videos of Sesame Place characters appearing to ignore Black children while interacting with others.

The incident caught the attention of multiple Hollywood figures. “Those gorgeous girls will never forget that feeling!” Kelly Rowland wrote in a reply on Sesame Place’s Instagram account, while Audra McDonald tweeted, “This is absolutely disgusting.”

“Every Black woman was once a little Black girl who made this face when the way things are for us in America first broke her heart,” tweeted Yvette Nicole Brown, while Wendell Pierce shared that the disillusionment can happen to boys, too: “Watching [this moment] reminds me of my own. 4 years old on Mardi Gras Day being denied the joy I see other kids having and the realization the horrible reality [sic].”

Sesame Place posted an initial response to its Instagram account on Sunday evening, explaining that the costumes sometimes inhibit performers’ sightlines, and that the employee portraying Rosita’s “no” gesture was a general response declining requests to hold children for photos, which is against park policy. “We spoke to the family and extended our apologies and invited them back for a special meet-and-greet opportunity with our characters,” the statement said.

But Mac said that hasn’t happened. “This statement is the first & only time the family heard about this offer & Sesame Place has cut off email communications,” she tweeted. “The entire statement is a lie.”

Late Monday afternoon, Sesame Workshop — which was careful to note that Sesame Place is a licensed partner — weighed in. “What these children experienced is unacceptable,” read its statement on social media. “We have been in contact with Sesame Place, our licensed park partner, and they have assured us that they will conduct bias training and a thorough review of the ways in which they engage with families and guests.”

Minutes after the nonprofit posted its statement, Sesame Place Philadelphia followed up with a new, pinned tweet: “We sincerely apologize to the family for their experience in our park on Saturday; we know that it’s not ok. We will conduct training for our employees so they better understand, recognize and deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience to our guests.”

[PaperClips]

The issue is, was it one rogue performer or systemic at Disney? They really f'd up the initial response. A simple answer would have been, "this is not our policy, we are appalled and the performer has been fired." Done. A lot of college kids do gigs there. It is hard to keep an eye on every one but that person should have been gone asap.

[Wawwie]

Where is the footage of "Rosita" allegedly snubbing the children?

[PaperClips]

Originally Posted by Wawwie

Where is the footage of "Rosita" allegedly snubbing the children?

Pretty much everywhere - you aren't dumb - just Google it. Not sure if we are allowed to post links.

[Wawwie]

Originally Posted by PaperClips

Pretty much everywhere - you aren't dumb - just Google it. Not sure if we are allowed to post links.

I was talking about the link posted in this thread. It does not show "Rosita" snubbing anyone. I am not going to "google it." The OP should have provided a link of the alleged incident.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by PaperClips

Pretty much everywhere - you aren't dumb - just Google it. Not sure if we are allowed to post links.

[Wawwie]

^^^ Thank you for the video. Now I can see for myself that "Rosita" did indeed snub those kids. One of those little girls held her arms out for a hug. How could "Rosita" ignore that? Cruel as she just high fived the kid next to them. So there is no excuse to snub the other two little girls. Very sad.

[Dude111]

Yes hopefully it was some kind of mistake on her part....... I would hope she wouldnt do this on purpose......

[dee2364]

These types of incidents are unfortunately very common and have been happening forever. It's only now that people are able to capture it. My nephew had a traumatic experience at Disney World in the 90s, where he was snubbed in favor of his sister, who is a lot lighter than he is and could be mistaken for biracial. The character kept hugging her over and over, looked past him as if he wasn't even there and moved on to the next kid.

There was also this incident a decade or so ago when a mall Santa kept teasing the kid on his knee as a "little monkey." I guess to avoid this issue, Macy's (where I used to work) would have different races of Santas.