Sesame Place in Philadelphia has faced accusations of racism this week after multiple videos were shared on social media appearing to show costumed characters snubbing Black children. The dustup at the Sesame Street-themed park began over the weekend when a video showing one character seeming to give two Black girls the cold shoulder went viral.
The beloved franchise’s defenders held that the whole thing was likely a misunderstanding, but the mother of the girls called the incident racist.
“I will never step foot in Sesame Place again,” she wrote. “They blatantly told our kids no then proceeded to hug the little white girl next to us.”
As the uproar grew, the theme park issued a statement apologizing for the incident and explaining what, according to staff, had actually happened.
“Our brand, our park and our employees stand for inclusivity and equality in all forms,” the park said. “That is what Sesame Place is all about and we do no tolerate any behaviors in our parks that are contrary to that commitment.”
According to the park’s statement, the performers’ costumes “sometimes make it difficult to see at lower levels and sometimes our performers miss hug requests from guests.”
“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,” Sesame Place said. “The Rosita performer did not intentionally ignore the girls and is devastated about the misunderstanding.”
The family is not buying Sesame Place’s reasoning or accepting its apology, wants to see the employee fired for racism, and has hired a lawyer, TMZ reported.
But the imbroglio has only grown from there. New videos have surfaced appearing to show repeated incidents of Sesame Street characters ignoring and possibly mistreating multiple Black children.
Sesame Workshop, the parent company of Sesame Street and a licensing partner with park Sesame Place, also issued a statement apologizing and vowing that employees will now undergo bias training in order to hopefully avoid future problems.