Boooooy, I bet when the person in that Rosita costumed snubbed those two adorable Black girls at the Sesame Place theme park in Philadelphia, they weren’t expecting the aftermath to be this serious. They probably weren’t expecting any backlash at all and they probably weren’t expecting anyone outside of those girls to notice or care. They may not have realized they were on camera and they probably expected us to buy the park’s bullsh** excuse that its costumed employees, whose sole purpose is interacting with children, often have trouble seeing—children.
Source: Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty
Unfortunately for The Masked “No” Finger, Black people aren’t just going to let this slide the way Rosita slid by those girls and right into the next white girl’s arms (who they could see just fine, apparently).
Attorney B’Ivory LaMarr told TMZ that at least one of those girls is so hurt and traumatized by the incident that is staying with her grandmother so she can be shielded from the publicity and regain her emotional stability. LaMarr told the outlet that the child has been overcome with emotion, crying and upset because she can’t understand why Rosita would treat her differently than white kids.
One of the things we’re told … she asked her mother in the immediate aftermath whether she’d done anything wrong … seeing how the Sesame mascot refused to touch her or the other Black girl, but had interacted with white girls just moments earlier.
“Their hearts were completely shattered by a character,” said LaMarr. “And tickets are not cheap. This is something these young girls were looking forward to. Words can’t describe the type of grief they are going through right now.”
He added that a lawsuit is possible and mentioned the other stories that surfaced on social media claiming similar incidents at Sesame Place in the past.
“We never bought the story that was told by Sesame Place, and I don’t think the world bought that explanation either,” LaMarr said. “So it was not surprising to see substantial videos flourish to substantiate the allegations that are made in this case.”
“You told these kids for years ‘come and play, everything’s OK, friendly neighbors there, that’s where we meet, can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?’ And once these kids figure out how to get to Sesame Street…they reach out in open arms to these friendly neighbors, for what? To be dismissed? To be rejected? And to leave your park inferior,” LaMarr said, according to ABC 6.
He added that he has more documentation from the incident and may release it depending on Sesame Place’s further actions unless the family receives an “authentic apology.”
“We have information that we possess – we are going to give this company, they got less than 12 hours to come out with information with a very genuine and authentic apology – or we’re going to put out evidence showing exactly what took place in addition to the video you’ve already seen,” LaMarr said reports ABC 6.
LaMarr said the evidence refers to the family’s comments that after passing the two girls, the Rosita character went on to hug a white child.
As previously reported in an initial statement, Sesame Place said the park and its employees stand for “inclusivity and equality in all forms” while noting that performers sometimes miss requests for hugs because the costumes they wear make it difficult to see at lower levels.
The park then released a second statement apologizing again and promising that it was “taking action to do better” alongside mandatory inclusivity training.
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