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More Families Threaten To Sue Sesame Place After Videos Saw Rosita ‘Snubbing Black Children’
The park has apologized, but there are demands they must meet with.
More videos have emerged of a giant Muppet named Rosita allegedly prioritizing white children over black kids at the Sesame Street Theme Park. A clip showed the blue Muppet ignoring a black boy who ran out to meet her during a parade despite high-fiving close-by white children.
Another showed a young black girl holding out her hand and waving to Rosita, only for the character to ignore her and hug a white child standing next to her.
Other similar videos show the Sesame Street character appearing to prioritize white children in a mixed group, and a caption on one clip read: “Now, I’m not saying #Rosita is racist. But whoever is under this/those masks sure is curving a bunch of brown kids. She ignored LOLA Twice last Sunday. (7/10) Lola ran up to her, saying ROSITA!”
The caption added: “The character went out of their way to change course and immediately after hugged and took a pic with a little white girl. Investigate this pattern.”
As a result of the snub on black children, families, including Leslie Mac [one of the girls’ aunt], has threatened to sue the Sesame Street theme park. Leslie, who works as an anti-racism trainer and is named in the top 100 Woke Women of 2020, said her family plans to sue the theme park and retains a lawyer.
The family attorney is B’Ivory LaMarr, and he attested that several families have now contacted him about the character acting similarly towards black children.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump has also claimed the actor’s disgusting behavior was heartbreaking. Attorney LaMarr added that the two girls in the first viral video were left confused, and their families were stressed. He stated the family doesn’t want to file a lawsuit but might eventually resort to action if the park doesn’t satisfy their demands.
“The family wants a couple of thing. They want a public, formal apology. They want something genuine, authentic. Acknowledge what happened and investigate it and take the appropriate action.”
Mac also took to TikTok to explain the circumstances. She said in her clip: “If you haven’t heard, my great niece held her fourth birthday party at Sesame Place over this past weekend with her friends and their parents – and it didn’t end well.” She revealed she was in talks with the adult who had reportedly accompanied the two kids on the trip, who she referred to as the mom and aunt of the two little girls in the video.
She has also spoken to a woman, Jodie, who said the family was irate over the altercation and was planning to pursue legal action.
“The next thing I wanna address is the fact that more videos have come out since this video went viral. I think we’re up to like six videos that show blatantly performers at Sesame Place ignoring black children and nonwhite children while giving attention to white children,” Mac said. However, Sesame Place called the incident a misunderstanding, saying the mascot likely didn’t see the girl, who had been celebrating her birthday at the park.
The theme park alleged it might be due to limited vision in the costume’s unwieldy mask and was waving at a family behind them.
In another statement, the park apologized and pledged to train its staff to prevent further incidents.
