Sesame Place—the theme park dedicated to the children’s show Sesame Street—has been trashed online after two Black park-goers were seemingly snubbed by a life-sized muppet.
On Sunday, an Instagram user known as @_jodiiii_ posted a video that went viral of two Black girls watching the Sesame Street Party Parade during their trip to the park just outside of Philadelphia. In the clip, two small girls with backpacks wait with open arms for Rosita, an aqua blue character who has been championed as the iconic show’s first bilingual muppet. However, rather than the girls getting claps and high-fives like the white parade attendees before them, it appears as if Rosita waves them off and declines to interact with them. Both girls are left visibly confused and hurt.
“I’m going to keep posting this, because this had me hot,” @_jodiiii_ wrote in a post to accompany the video. “We were on our way out of sesame place and the kids wanted to stop to see the characters. THIS DISGUSTING person blatantly told our kids NO then proceeded to hug the little white girl next to us!” (The video posted to social media doesn’t show the subsequent hug.)
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The person who posted the clip claimed that when she complained about how the character treated the young girls, a park employee didn’t seem to understand the situation.
“I asked the lady who the character was and I wanted to see a supervisor and she told me SHE DIDNT KNOW !!” @_jodiii_ wrote. “I will never step foot in @sesameplace ever again ! And please feel free to repost this. Actually run me my money back. [I’m] so mad I stopped the video but it got me so mad when he blatantly told them no.”
As of Monday morning, the video had spread widely across social media and several high-profile personalities had weighed in.
“This is absolutely HEARTBREAKING!” civil rights attorney Ben Crump posted. “These two young Queens did NOT deserve to be blatantly singled out and ignored by this #SesameStreet.”
Singer Kelly Rowland reposted the video to her Instagram stories, with the caption: “Oh hell nawwww!”
“Had that been me, that whole parade would’ve been in flames,” the songstress said in a subsequent clip. “Like, are you serious? You’re not going to speak to my child? And did you see that baby’s face at the end?...She deserves an explanation.”
In a statement released Sunday night to its official Instagram page, Sesame Place stated that the park and employees “stand for inclusivity and equality in all forms.”
“We do not tolerate any behaviors in our parks that are contrary to that commitment,” the statement continued.
However, the park surmised that the vision of the person in the Rosita costume may have been obstructed and they could not see the two girls, who were much shorter.
“The performer portraying the Rosita character has confirmed that the ‘no’ hand gesture seen several times in the video was not directed to any specific person, rather it was a response to multiple requests from someone in the crowd who asked Rosita to hold their child for a photo which is not permitted,” the statement read. “The Rosita performer did not intentionally ignore the girls and is devastated about the misunderstanding.”
Park organizers said they spoke and apologized to the family of the two girls. They also said they would be invited back to Sesame Place for a “special meet-and-greet opportunity” with characters.
But some people weren’t buying the “raggedy” mea culpa.
“This response is unreal,” activist Tamika Mallory, organizer of the 2017 Women’s March, commented under the post. “You all need to regroup and try again. We will not accept this.”
“@SesamePlace dropped the ball with hiring AND that gaslighting statement,” actress and comedian Yvette Nicole Brown tweeted along with a thumbs down emoji. “This moment at that particular @sesameplace never should’ve happened. And that raggedy statement was woefully inefficient.”
