Sesame Place is apologizing for a family’s experience at the park this last weekend that was captured in a now-viral video.
After backlash following an initial statement, the venue now says it knows that what happened isn’t acceptable and is committed to making things right. In a statement Monday night, the theme park says it will be conducting training for employees so “they better understand, recognize and deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience to our guests.”
The statement was in response to a video a woman posted online showing two young girls, her daughter and niece, reaching their hands out to the Sesame Street character “Rosita” during a parade at the park in Langhorne, Bucks County on last weekend.
The video shows the character giving high-fives to others white children as she nears the two kids. Jodi Brown and her attorney told CNN on Tuesday the Sesame Place character, Rosita, was racist toward her family. The mother claims the character motioned “no” and ignored her daughter and niece. While they instead interacting with other children.
“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 said.
She says the character embraced the other child with two arms. “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 fact that this even happened, the fact that this is going to be a core memory for them when it comes to Sesame Place is actually disgusting and unbelievable,” Brown said.
In the initial statement, Sesame Place said the performer “did not intentionally ignore the girls” and was “devastated about the misunderstanding.”
“We apologize to these guests for not delivering the experience they expected and we commit to do our best to earn their and all guests’ visit and support,” the initial statement read. However, since the backlash and, several other videos have surfaced that seem to show similar incidents. The park has not responded to those videos specifically, however, says it has reached out to the family from last weekend’s video and invited them for a special meet-and-greet opportunity with the park characters.
On Monday night, Sesame Place issued another statement:
“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. We are committed to making this right. We will conduct training for our employees so they better understand, recognize and deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience to our guests.
For over 40 years Sesame Place has worked to uphold the values of respect, inclusion and belonging. We are committed to doing a better job making children and families feel special, seen and included when they come to our parks.”
Charles Jackson French heroic actions in World War II saved lives
Did you know Betty Boop was based on a Black woman
Link to original The Black Detour