The Sesame Place theme park, located just outside of Philadelphia, was under serious fire after a Black mother shared a video of her daughters being rejected by a park employee dressed as Rosita, a character from the long-running children’s television show Sesame Street.
On July 17, the mother of the girls posted the racist treatment of her daughters on her Instagram account. In the now-viral video, Rosita can be seen high-fiving a white person before shaking her head “no” to the young black girls standing directly in front of her. The situation left the young girls understandably perplexed and disappointed.
The mother writes, in part, in the caption:
“I’m going to keep posting this because this had me hot. 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!”
When the mother tried to speak with a manager about her concerns, she was told that they couldn’t identify the person inside the costume. However, outraged parents on social media were quick to call their bluff.
R&B singer, Kelly Rowland, even responded with her own video on Instagram, saying, “Had that been me, that whole parade would have been in flames.”
Sesame Place responded to the July 17 incident by issuing a formal statement on Instagram, claiming that the performer’s “no” gesture was not intended to ignore the girls but rather was in response to someone in the crowd asking to hold their child for a picture, which is prohibited. But, after watching the video several times, it’s difficult to believe that explanation.
Sesame Place went on to say that they apologized to the family and invited them back for a special meet and greet with the characters. However, people have flooded the comments section to tell the Philadelphia theme park that they will not accept their apology.
“This response is unreal,” activist Tamika Mallory wrote. “You all need to regroup and try again. We will not accept this.”