After a family trip to the amusement park Sesame Place in Philadelphia, one mother posted a video on Saturday showing her two children getting snubbed by a Sesame Street character.
The footage showed two black children expecting high-fives from the Rosita character, only for the employee wearing the costume to ignore them, the New York Post reported.
The mother claimed the performer’s actions are racially motivated. She posted on social media that the character “proceeded to hug the little white girl next to us.”
The original video on the mother’s Instagram received over 440,000 views, while a re-post on Twitter garnered over 6.9 million views.
“We were on our way out of sesame place and the kids wanted to stop to see the characters,” she wrote in the post.
The character can be seen walking away, after appearing to look at the girls and proceeding to wave no with its hand.
“Then when I went to complain about it, they 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!”
The mother’s outrage quickly spread online, with users expressing their disgust over the interaction.
Kelly Rowland, a singer previously in the group Destiny’s Child, also called out the theme park.
Do you think the employee’s rebuff was racially motivated?
Yes: 22% (8 Votes)
No: 78% (28 Votes)
“Okay so had that been me, that whole parade would have been in flames,” Rowland posted on her Instagram stories.
“Like, 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 on? She deserves an explanation,” she said.
Whether the supposed snub was intentional or not is unclear. However, Sesame Place did issue an apology on Sunday in response to the backlash.
“Our brand, our park and our employees stand for inclusivity and equality in all forms. That is what Sesame Place is all about and we do no tolerate any behaviors in our parks that are contrary to that commitment,” the Instagram statement read.
The theme park, however, did not directly respond to the Post for comment.
“The performer portraying the Rosita character has confirmed that the ‘no’ hand gesture seen several times in the video was not directed to any specific person, rather 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 Rosita performer did not intentionally ignore the girls and is devastated about the misunderstanding,” it read.
The statement also added that it reached out to the family, inviting them back for a “special meet-and-greet opportunity with our characters.”
The mom was not convinced with the apology, claiming Sesame Place was more concerned with saving face over publicly apologizing to her children.
She said that a manager initially reached out to her, but no further communication was made since the video went viral.
“The statement was disrespectful and distasteful. Talk about adding insult to injury,” she wrote on an Instagram story.
The mother said she will re-post the clip “everyday until the situation is handled.”
“The character could’ve just waved to everyone or just kept walking but to blatantly look at my kids and say no, I’m not [accepting] that,” she added. “Don’t try to tell me he can’t see lower levels, he looked at them and said no.”
