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The Sesame Place controversy has new developments. The legal team representing the family of two black girls who were allegedly ignored by the character Rosita at the Sesame Street-inspired amusement park in Philadelphia is calling for the performer to be terminated.
A viral video of the incident shows two children waiting for Rosita at Sesame Place, waving excitedly and holding their arms out for a hug. As Rosita reaches the children, she is seen shaking her head, indicating a "no" and refusing to high-five them.
The video left netizens furious, starting a racist row and demanding a boycott of Sesame Place. It even caught the attention of actress Whoopi Goldberg, who reached out to the park after the incident.
Attorney B'Ivory LaMarr, in a press conference on Wednesday, put forward three demands from the theme park:
"We want a genuine and authentic apology. The second thing that we're requesting is for the immediate termination of that performer. The third thing that we're going to request is -- we're going to demand that they take care of any type of health care or mental care expenses that these children have realized."
In an initial statement issued by the theme park, it stated that the "no" hand gesture was in response to requests to hold children for photographs, which is not permitted. They clarified that the performer "did not intentionally ignore the girls."
Sesame Place later issued another apology and promised to conduct training for employees so they can "better understand, recognize, and deliver an inclusive, equitable, and entertaining experience" to guests.
Whoopi Goldberg reveals that she reached out to Sesame Place over viral video
Actress Whoopi Goldberg, who has worked with Sesame Street in the past, revealed on The View on Wednesday that she has reached out to Sesame Place after the incident pertaining to the two black children came to light.
Whoopi explained to the audience that Sesame Place is a licensed park partner of the non-profit Sesame Workshop. She went on to share the details of the encounter:
"Well, I'll tell you why that's happened, because I talked to the people at Sesame Street. Okay. Because I work with them a lot, and I said, 'What the hell? And basically they said, Listen. We're all over this because our characters — the children must feel like these characters are the characters they expect them to be. So, we're all over this."
Whoopi further added:
"So I suspect a lot of what they're going to be doing, all the diversity training, all that stuff, is coming from Sesame Workshop saying, 'Oh no. Whoever is dealing with these characters, they're going to have the information they need. We're sorry we have to talk to you like this, but clearly you need to understand you can't do that for kids.'"
Other hosts on the show debated how unsatisfactory the statement issued by the theme park was and that "Rosita seems to be a repeat offender." They even expressed their feeling that the performer who plays Rosita must be fired, to which Goldberg added that it is important to first teach people why they're being fired before you fire them.
As the video went viral, the mother of one of the children expressed that she was happy that the video had reached the masses. Throwing attention to the other videos that have come out, she said that:
"I also think that a lot of parents, as you can see in the other videos that are now released, have went through a similar thing and just didn't speak up about it right away. So now they have the courage to say 'hey, this also happened to my child."
Sesame Place Philadelphia is one of two parks that are based on the children's program Sesame Street, which has been on the air since 1969. The other Sesame Place park is in San Diego, California.
