The nine-second video, posted to Instagram on Saturday by Jodi Brown, the mother of one of the girls, showed the character Rosita high-fiving a white child and a woman, then making “no” gestures and walking away from the two girls who had their arms stretched out for a hug and held high during the parade at Sesame Place in Langhorne, outside Philadelphia.
“I will never set foot in @sesameplace again,” Brown said online.
The family’s attorney, B’Ivory LaMarr, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the family is disappointed and upset by the incident and “the trauma that is being passed on to their children.”
In an initial statement Sunday, Sesame Place said the park and its employees stand for “inclusion and equality in all forms.” The statement also noted that performers sometimes miss requests for hugs because the costumes they wear make it difficult to see them at lower levels.
“Rosita’s performer did not intentionally ignore the girls and is devastated by the misunderstanding,” the statement said.
However, many people expressed their anger online and some called for a boycott of the amusement park.
The park issued a second statement on Monday, again apologizing and promising it was “taking action to do better.” Among these efforts would be employee inclusion training.
Both the statements and the video sparked a strong response on social media, which LaMarr said helped shine a light on “the existence of these issues.”
“A lot of African-Americans tend to become very passive because unfortunately we’re used to dealing with this kind of racism in various venues,” he said.
Sesame Place has been the official ‘Sesame Street’ theme park for more than four decades. It opened in 1980.
“One would expect a reputable organization as respected as Sesame Street and Sesame Place to stand by the principles and values they are portrayed in,” LaMarr said. “Instead, what this family saw was a company that came out and is very dismissive of the damage that was done.”
