Sesame Place accused of widespread racism, is now being sued for $25 million dollars
A video went viral after a Sesame Place character outside Philadelphia was accused of being racist for skipping two young black girls during one of their street parades. After this first video, however, a lot more videos came out of the same thing happening to other black children.
The family of the girls in the first video that went viral has filed a $25 million lawsuit against Sesame Place.
Sesame Place did release the following statement in response to the videos coming out:
“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.”
In a second apology, Seasme Place stated:
“We have been in contact with the family since Sunday morning and we remain in contact through their lawyer Mr. LaMarr. We have offered to meet the family and their attorney in person, as early as today, to personally deliver an apology and an acknowledgment that we are holding ourselves accountable for what happened. We want to listen to them to understand how the experience impacted their family and to understand what we can do better for them and all guests who visit our parks. 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.
We are taking action and are reviewing our practices to identify necessary changes, both in the immediate and long-term. We are 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 have already engaged with nationally recognized experts in this area.
We take this extremely seriously; we are heartbroken by what these young girls and this family experienced in our park. It is antithetical to our values, principles and purpose. We are committed to working tirelessly and intentionally to make this situation better. We will do the necessary work for the long haul — not just in the public eye, but also behind the scenes and within ourselves.”