(Daily Mail) More families are threatening to sue a Sesame Street theme park after videos emerged they say show the character Rosita appearing to snub black children.
The first footage appeared to show two young black children at Sesame Place in Philadelphia being ignored by the blue Muppet.
The aunt of one of the girls, Leslie Mac, who works as an ‘anti-racism trainer’ and was named in the top 100 Woke Women of 2020, said her family plans to sue the theme park and they have retained a lawyer.
Sesame Place called it a ‘misunderstanding’, saying the mascot likely did not see the girl, who had been celebrating her birthday at the park, due to limited vision in the costume’s unwieldy mask and was waving at a family behind them.
The theme park was then targeted by a woke mob and released a second statement, apologizing to the family and pledging to start ‘training’ their staff to prevent further incidents.
The family’s attorney, B’Ivory LaMarr, said that multiple families have now contacted him about the character acting similarly towards black children.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said yesterday the actor’s ‘disgusting behavior’ was ‘absolutely heartbreaking.’
Attorney LaMarr said about the two girls in the first viral video: ‘Obviously, [the girls] were confused. They were in a lot of stress—the whole family.’
He said: ‘The family wants a couple of things. They want a public, formal apology. They want something that is genuine, authentic… Acknowledge what happened and investigate it and take the appropriate action.’
He added the family does not want to file a lawsuit but they may resort to action if the park does not satisfy their demands.
Mac took to TikTok yesterday to explain the circumstances around the incident.
She said: ‘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.’
Mac went on to reveal that she was in talks with the 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.’
‘While they were with a bigger group,’ Mac said, ‘this incident happened specifically to them.’
Mac said she had spoken to the woman, who she called ‘Jodie,’ and said the family were irate over the altercation and were planning to pursue legal action.
Mac then added: ‘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 non white children while giving attention to white children.’
In a general statement, Sesame Place said: ‘We sincerely apologize to the family for their experience in our park on Saturday; we know that it’s not ok.
‘We are taking actions to do better. We are committed to making this right.
‘We will conduct training for our employees so they better understand, recognize and deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience to our guests.
‘For over 40 years Sesame Place has worked to uphold the values of respect, inclusion and belonging. We are committed to doing a better job making children and families feel special, seen and included when they come to our parks.’
In a new statement Tuesday night, Sesame Place said they spoke with and apologized to the family Sunday for the slight, and had refunded costs and offered the kids a return visit to meet with the characters.
‘On Sunday we did speak with and apologize to the family for the experience, offering a return trip for a meet and greet personalized experience with the characters,’ the statement read.
‘We offered to refund her visit costs. That refund has been processed, but it would not have been received yet.’
It went on: ‘It is not acceptable to us when children and families don’t feel special, seen and included at our park. Our performers work here to entertain and inspire all children – not to disappoint any of them.
‘No child should ever leave our park feeling disappointed or ignored. That is the opposite of what our park is intended to inspire in children. We want every child who comes to the park to have a positive, memorable experience.’
The park went on to call the incident a learning experience, and reiterated that staffers would undergo bias training in the wake of the incident.
‘We commit to learn everything we can from this situation and make needed changes,’ the statement said.
‘As noted previously, we will provide additional training for Sesame Place employees to help them better understand, recognize and deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience to our guests.’
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street and licensed partner of Sesame Place, also commented on the incident Tuesday, calling the incident ‘unacceptable.’
