Sesame Place promises bias training after viral ‘racist’ video, family hires lawyer

nypost.com:

accusations of racism, the organization is promising to make changes.The footage shared by a mother — who has now retained a lawyer, according to TMZ — on Instagram shows her young daughters being ignored by the Rosita character from “Sesame Street.” The Muppet appears to high-five the park visitors around them, but skipped over the two little girls of color. “I’m going to keep posting this, because this had me hot,” one of the girl’s mothers, posting under the Instagram handle @__jodiii__, wrote Saturday.The original video has racked up more than 550,000 views as of Tuesday morning.

A repost of the video on Twitter has gained over 8.5 million additional views.The incident caught the attention of many celebrities, including actress Yvette Nicole Brown, who tweeted, “Every Black woman was once a little Black girl who made this face when the way things are for us in America first broke her heart.”Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind “Sesame Street,” responded to the situation in a statement on social media.“We have been in contact with Sesame Place, our licensed park partner, and they have assured us that they will conduct bias training and a thorough review of the ways in which they engage with families and guests,” they wrote in the statement.“As a global nonprofit educational organization with a mission to help children grow smarter, stronger and kinder, Sesame Workshop has always stood for respect, inclusion and belonging and is committed to providing the highest quality engaging experiences for all children and families,” the statement went on.pic.twitter.com/ObonXOniKZMoments after the nonprofit shared its statement, Sesame Place Philadelphia shared a new statement that read, “We sincerely apologize to the family.