Sesame Place Vows To Get Employees Sensitivity Training Over Viral Video Of Rosita Snubbing Black Girls

Executives from Sesame Place have issued an apology after multiple videos on the internet went viral, showing a few of the park’s costumed characters being rude and unfriendly to Black children and nice to white children.

The parent company Sesame Workshop has extended their deepest apologies for the conduct and is implementing bias training with their employees. This news comes as some of the parents are entertaining legal options to address what seems like discrimination.

On Monday, July 18th, Sesame Place Philadelphia released a statement void of an apology and standing by the company’s “mission” and “ethics.”

“Our brand, our park, and our employees stand for inclusivity and equality in all forms. That is what Sesame Place is about and we do not tolerate any behaviors in our parks that are contrary to that commitment. We also are, and have always been, committed to making sure every family and every child has the best possible experience at our parks and we are incredibly disappointed when that does not happen.”

The statement claimed the costumes make it hard for the characters to see the “lower levels” where the children were, and “sometimes” they miss “hug requests. They also said that “Rosita did not intentionally ignore the little girls and is devastated about the misunderstanding.”

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Celebrities hopped into the comment section with their disapproval of the statement.

However, the company double-backed and put out another statement later in the evening, after the public started to rise up in anger.

“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.”

This was still not enough for some.

The first clip, which megastar Kelly Rowland reposted, showed the Muppet character Rosita dissing two little Black girls at the park. The character gives a white adult a high five and then wags its finger “no” to another person off-screen and snubs the children.

Here is the mother’s original video.

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She captioned the post, “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! Then when I went to complain about it, they are looking at me like I’m crazy. I asked the lady who the character was, and I wanted to see a supervisor and she told me SHE DIDNT KNOW!! I will never step foot in @sesameplace ever again! And please feel free to repost this. Actually, run me my money back 😡🤬so mad I stopped the video, but it got me so mad when he blatantly told them no.”

Rowland said in her Instagram story video, “So had that been me, that whole parade would’ve been in flames. Are you serious? You’re not going to speak to my child? And did you see that baby’s face at the end? The little one with the pink one? She deserves an explanation!”

Another one shows one of the Honkers pushing another Black girl, a tiny toddler, over with his big belly.