PHILADELPHIA — The mother who posted a video of her daughter and niece after they were seemingly snubbed by a costumed character at Sesame Place called for the employee playing the mascot to be fired.
Over the weekend, an employee dressed as the turquoise Muppet Rosita was recorded appearing to refuse to high-five two young Black girls during a parade at Sesame Place in Langhorne. The video, recorded by Jodi Brown, spread on social media and prompted calls to boycott Sesame Place and for an explanation from the company.
The nine-second clip shows the mascot waving at and high-fiving a few people and then apparently waving off the two girls who had outstretched hands. On CNN on Tuesday, Brown said that she was outraged by the experience and that her daughter and niece were crestfallen.
At a Wednesday news conference in New York, Brown and her 6-year-old daughter, Nylah, were flanked by their attorney, B’Ivory Lamarr, and activist Tamika Mallory of Until Freedom, calling for the employee to be held responsible and pledging to fight for other Black children who they said had gone through the same experience.
“We cannot and will not allow our children to leave a park feeling empty, when they should leave feeling empowered,” said Lamarr.
“We’ve come to learn that what took place Saturday is not an anomaly,” he said. “But what we’re seeing is business as usual. To deny, to defend, and to delay accountability. An incident like this should not have to go viral for the harms to be properly addressed by corporations in this country.”
On Sunday, Sesame Place Philadelphia posted an apology saying its brand stood for “inclusivity and equality in all forms” and explaining that sometimes the costumes made it hard for performers to see hug requests. The company also said it spoke to the employee seen in the video, who explained the “no” gesture was directed at someone who asked them to carry their child. Carrying a child is against the park rules.
At the news conference, Lamarr said he had video evidence that contradicted Sesame Place’s initial claims that the performer said no to another person and not the two 6-year-olds. The attorney said he would give the company a chance to fix the problem before releasing the evidence.
On Monday, Sesame Place Philadelphia followed up with another apology, saying the company knew that the incident was “not ok.” The company also said it would conduct training for its employees to improve inclusivity and equitability.
Sesame Place is owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, but the park’s use of the characters is through a license with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit responsible for the long-running TV show Sesame Street.
In a statement to CBS News on Wednesday, Sesame Workshop said: “It’s unacceptable that our beloved characters and brand have contributed in any way to the pain and hurt of any child or family.”
But the apologies, Mallory and Lamarr said earlier Wednesday, were not enough and asked for a formal apology from Sesame Place along with the employee’s termination. Lamarr said that they did not plan to file a lawsuit against the company.
Sesame Place had reached out to Lamarr, but Brown said she had asked to speak to park management at the time of the incident, only to be told that there wasn’t a supervisor available. In the time since, Sesame Place reached out to Brown and asked her and her family back to the park, she said.
Mallory said at the news conference that the treatment of the two young girls represented a larger issue. The incident, she said, tarnished the children’s show’s reputation for teaching young ones about tolerance and diversity.
“We are not here today because we are just upset about something that happened at a park,” Mallory said. “We are here because the history of what this park is supposed to represent has been denigrated.”
Brown said that the release of her video led to other parents of Black children sharing similar experiences with the same costumed character at the park. Videos posted on social media appear to show Rosita also ignoring or bypassing Black children asking for a high five.
Lamarr echoed Brown’s claims, saying that other people had reached out to his and Mallory’s offices with videos of similar encounters at Sesame Place.
Brown said that after her daughter and niece were snubbed, she had to explain to them it wasn’t their fault and assure them not everyone would treat them that way.
“In that moment you want to console the children and tell them, ‘It’s OK, you didn’t do anything wrong. Some people just aren’t good people. But for every bad person there’s going to be 100 more good people. And love is always going to outweigh the hate,’” Brown said. “But I shouldn’t have these conversations with two 6-year-old children.”
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(Inquirer staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.)
