Sesame Cruel Stupidity

Whaaaat? This is awful.

That is disgusting! This was at a park they paid to get into? The person in that suit needs to be outed and fired. Shame on the people she tried to get to do something for just blowing her off and not doing something about it. I can understand that they might not know who was in that costume that day, but she should have found out. Take the mother’s phone number, follow up on what happened, and fire that discriminating excuse for a child entertainer. The little one in the pink looked confused and dejected. It makes me want to do something about it too. Surely given the date and time, someone there can identify the person in that suit. You don’t take a job like that if you are going to hurt children’s feelings.

I think link is messed up I got even more different reels every time I clicked. We're not all seeing the intended video. 

ON my first watch I was aghast. But I think I need more video and context of what is going on.
At first glance it does seem that the 'monster' is skipping over the girls and shaking his hands in a 'no' manner.

He high-fived the lady before them, then immediately shook his 'no' finger at her (she is white) and it seemed it was continuing the 'no' movements as it walked along... so what gives.

Her comments say that it hugged the little white girl next to them, but the video doesn't show it. So I don't know.

I have been burned to many times by only seeing a small sampling of the video and having the context skewed because of this.

At least I really hope its not as bad as it looks!

Edit to add this from Sesame Place.  Honestly -  how can people even see much out of those costumes!  

On Monday, the park — which is one of the two Sesame Street–themed parks owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment — issued a statement apologizing for the incident, which it characterized as a misunderstanding. “The costumes our performers wear sometimes make it difficult to see at lower levels and sometimes our performers miss hug requests from guests,” the statement said. It also stated that the person inside the costume “confirmed that the ‘no’ hand gesture seen several times in the video was not directed to any specific person,” claiming that 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.” The statement continued, “The Rosita performer did not intentionally ignore the girls and is devastated about the misunderstanding.”

Am I the only one who just doesn’t see it the way the mom is describing it?

It’s a parade. The character is supposed to keep walking. She can’t possibly stop to hug every singe kid on the route.

Nothing about this looks racist or even intentional to me.

Rosita didn't shake her finger at the girls, she shook her finger at someone who wanted her to hold their kid for a pic.

www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/us/sesame-place-apology-rosita-black-girls-backlash-reaj/index.html

They should make the parades no contact to avoid false allegations of all kinds.

I saw a second video on Instagram yesterday where it happened again. Not quite as blatant as the first video but it seems like a pattern.

If I recall the dark ages ago when we took the kids to Sesame Place, they were adamant about the kids being behind the line for parade safety.

The video looks awful and the kids look sad; and anyone who has been to Disney has seen hundreds of kids have varying levels of character interactions running the gamut from joyful hugs to being ignored because it’s break time or they don’t see them or the person in the suit is about to die or whatever. And some people shake it off and other parents get upset and with the internet it’s all over now and people have higher expectations for what experience they *might* have with characters.

Idk maybe Rosita is racist as hell, maybe she’s supposed to high five every 4th kid, maybe she didn’t want to encourage more kids to come out over the line?

I do hope the family was able to have the personal meet and greet Sesame Place offered after it was brought to their attention.

I think this definitely looked racist. The finger shake appeared to be to the woman before the little girls - and the article said as much - but she certainly purposely shook her hand at the girls!

I don't know if this was a racial incident or not. I can see how it could be seen as racist but I also think that its entirely possible that it wasn't. Either way, I think character parades should be a no touching type of situation to avoid this. Little ones shouldn't have to leave upset that one child got something they didn't.


Re: the various videos of the character possibly skipping AA children --- do we even know if its the same person in the costume? Do we know their race?


That said, I saw an article on TMZ that one of the girls is still 'reeling' from this incident and they are looking into therapy for her.

From the article:

One of the Black girls who allegedly got snubbed by a character at Sesame Place is still reeling from the incident ... and is now isolating with a family member to regain stability.

LaMarr tells us the little girl has been overcome with emotion, crying and upset because she can't understand why Rosita would treat her differently than white kids.

One of the things we're told ... she asked her mother in the immediate aftermath whether she'd done anything wrong ... seeing how the Sesame mascot refused to touch her or the other Black girl, but had interacted with white girls just moments earlier.

LaMarr says he and the family are working on setting her up with therapy sessions.

As for what's on the horizon ... we're told a Change.org petition has been set up to ID the person in the Rosita costume ... with the goal of accountability. LaMarr previously told us they're also mulling over a lawsuit.

www.tmz.com/2022/07/20/black-child-isolating-grandmother-traumatized-sesame-place/


I am trying to be compassionate towards the young girl, but therapy? A possible lawsuit? Really? I get being disappointed by not getting to interact with your favorite character but needing therapy and a lawsuit just feels like an over reaction (though I do not have to deal with racism so maybe its not an overreaction to someone who has had to deal with it before).

I have worked with young children for over 30 years and have had my own kids. Theoretically I understand the call for equal and same for everyone, but it just isn't possible in crowd situations and isn't anyone's reality. In animal shows, does every child get called to the stage to touch the animal that is being taught about? In amusement park shows, can every child in the audience be brought to stage to participate?  In all the dolphin shows I went to as a child, not once was I called on to work with the trainer and the dolphin. 

In the grand scheme of life, these are low risk learning experiences about real world situations and feelings. Learning to deal with disappointment, whether large or small, is not something to be avoided.  And, often times, I have found it is the adults' reactions that define how traumatic and upsetting the disappointment is for the child. It is impossible for equal treatment in these large crowd type of situations, so we are saying that if everyone can't have the exact same experience then no one should?  I am not sure that is better.

All of that being said, I can see how this particular, small picture incident may be perceived as racial discrimination, so I think it is smart to address, but I think more investigation should be done to determine if this is a pattern that deserves further action on the part of the person playing the character.  We all have biases that we unconsciously act upon, so examining it more closely and making conscious adjustments will be beneficial regardless of the determination.  We know nothing about the person in the suit, do we?