Jodi Brown shared the video on her Instagram on June 17. In the video, her daughter and niece are at the Sesame Place parade. The girls reach out to the character Rosita for a hug, who is high-fiving others in the crowd. When the character comes near the girls, she shakes her head no at them and walks away.
“Right after the character passed them, there was another little girl next to them who was of a different race, and [Rosita] hugged her,” Brown explained to CNN. “At that time I had already stopped recording the video. … I was upset so I stopped the video because I was like ‘what just happened?”
The video has been shared over 730,000 times on Instagram.
Left: Matthew Kincaid is CEO of Overcoming Racism, Right: Amani Wells-Onyioha, Operations Director of Sole Strategies
The incident has been a hot button for social justice and civil rights experts and many are calling it an act of racism. Civil Rights advocate and lawyer Benjamin Crump tweeted the video and called it ‘heartbreaking.’
“These two young Queens did NOT deserve to be blatantly singled out and ignored by this #SesameStreet character!,” he tweeted.
Critical race expert and Overcoming Racism CEO Matthew Kincaid said no amount of racism towards children should be tolerated.
“This is not something that we can take lightly or normalize. The cumulative effect of a lifetime of racist incidents has significant impacts on Black people in America,” Kincaid said. “For the black child in this scenario it is not simply that they are being ignored, it is that they are also watching the white children being acknowledged. Far too often black children are forced to learn about racism through the contrast of their experiences and the experiences of their white peers.”
A teaching moment
Political strategist and civil rights advocate Amani Wells-Onyioha said what is saddest about the incident is how deep racism stems. She refers to a thread on Twitter that shows similar incidents occurring to other Black children in the park.
“What the team could have done better was take full accountability and open the floor to have a real discussion on systematic racism and its effects on American society,” Wells-Onyioha said. “Instead, they decided to cop out, and label the incident an accident. This only furthers the gas-lighting that Black Americans feel about racism every day.”
So apparently the Sesame Place has a history of ignoring black kids… Here’s a thread of the proof. pic.twitter.com/jblam47HHn
— My Hair Longer Than Yours… (@_TheShawn) July 18, 2022
Black mother’s perspective
Black parents such as serial entrepreneur Marlo Richardson, also see the lesson in the incident on why organizations like the children’s non-profit should incorporate bias training.
“It’s a perfect example of why diversity and inclusion are important in all organizations,” Richardson said. The Braymar Wines founder is the mother of two young Black daughters. “Despite teaching kids that all people deserve kindness and respect regardless of the color of their skin. Clear, it is a lesson that adults need as well. No employee should ever feel so comfortable that they blatantly behave in such a disgusting manner publicly. ”
Kincaid, whose firm specializes in race and inclusion training for companies and organizations, said “Anti-racism training is only effective when it is coupled with policy change. Sesame Street has used its platform to promote anti-racism in the past on their show. I am cautiously optimistic that they will make the correct long-term choices to repair this harm.”
Far too often black children are forced to learn about racism through the contrast of their experiences and the experiences of their white peers.”
Sesame Place released a statement on their Instagram saying in part that the Rosita character confirmed that the ‘no hand gesture’ was not directed ‘to any specific person.’ They followed up with another statement on July 19 stating that “We sincerely apologize to the family for their experience in our park on Saturday; we know that it’s not ok. We are taking actions to do better.”
They added that they will conduct bias training for their employees, so “they better understand, recognize and deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience’ to their guests.
Sesame Workshop also released a statement acknowledging the incident and said in part, “As a global nonprofit educational organization with a mission to help children grow smarter, stronger, and kinder, Sesame Workshop has always stood for respect, inclusion, and belonging and is committed to providing the highest quality engaging experiences for all children and families. We hold our partners to the same high standards.”
The organization added, “We will continue working with our long-term partner Sesame Place to ensure that appropriate actions are taken and that incidents like this do not happen in the future.
