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Mom who accused the performer at Sesame Place of ignoring her daughter and niece is denying the park’s explanation of the incident. She doesn’t believe that it was just a misunderstanding.
The Philadelphia area theme park, which we know is based on the popular kid tv show “Sesame Street” got a lot of heat after Jodi Brown shared her video showing a character that was dressed as Rosita dismissing her daughter and niece, who is black, during the parade.
Her video soon went viral on Instagram, showing the character hand gestures no to the girls after just high-fiving and being intuitive with other guests there.
Brown explained to CBS NEWS that when the character walked off she quickly stopped recording and asked to speak with a supervisor. She said the girls wanted to know what they did wrong for the character to just brush them off like that. "I had to explain to them, 'You didn't do anything. It's okay. I'm going to speak to a manager and find out why it happened,'" she said, adding that the girls were "sad" and "heartbroken."
Sesame Place made a statement Tuesday stating, that the park stands for "inclusivity and equality in all forms," and they do not tolerate such behavior that will be contrary to that kind of commitment.
They put out a statement regarding the character Rosita stating,
The park said they spoke to the family and apologized and even invited them to meet the characters. Brown, however, told CBS News that did not happen. "No, standing next to me, there wasn't anyone asking them to hold a child or take a photo," she said.
Since her video went viral, other families have been showing similar situations where the Sesame Place character appears to be ignoring the same race shared by other Black parents.
They did apologize after Brown’s legal team stated that it was necessary. This is what they had to say, "We sincerely and wholeheartedly apologize to the Brown family for what they experienced. To be very clear, what the two young girls experienced, what the family experienced, is unacceptable. It happened in our park, with our team, and we own that. It is our responsibility to make this better for the children and the family and to be better for all families."
"We are committed to learning all we can from this situation to make meaningful change. We want every child who comes to our park to feel included, seen, and inspired," the park said, adding that it is "instituting mandatory training for all of our employees so that we can better recognize, understand, and deliver an inclusive, equitable and entertaining experience for all our guests."
"We take this extremely seriously; we are heartbroken by what these young girls and this family experienced in our park," Sesame Place said.
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