E.G.O.T. winner Whoopi Goldberg is not taking the Sesame Place controversy lightly. Leslie Mac went viral when she shared a video of her 4-year-old daughter Paige and her friend who were seemingly ignored by the character Rosita during a parade at Sesame Street Philadelphia. Social media outrage poured in, with other parents sharing video footage of their children also being overlooked in the crowd by characters. Initially, the theme park issued a statement saying the character was ignoring parents’ requests for a photo with the characters, noting it’s against their policy. But considering the video footage, social media users weren’t buying it. They later issued another apology, adding as an investigation is underway, their staff will be attending diversity and inclusion training. But the hosts of The View aren’t feeling it.
Co-host Sara Haines doesn’t find racial bias training appropriate. She stated during a discussion about the incident: “If you have to teach inclusion and how to treat a young child, they need to be in another job.” Goldberg also shared tough words. “Well, I’ll tell you why that’s happened because I talked to the people at Sesame Street. Okay. Because I work with them a lot, and I said, ‘What the h—?’” she explained.
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She continued: “And basically they said, ‘Listen. We’re all over this because our characters — the children must feel like these characters are the characters they expect them to be. So, we’re all over this.’”
Goldberg added: “So I suspect a lot of what they’re going to be doing, all the diversity training, all that stuff, is coming from Sesame Workshop saying, ‘Oh no. Whoever is dealing with these characters, they’re going to have the information they need. We’re sorry we have to talk to you like this, but clearly, you need to understand you can’t do that for kids.’”
Sesame Place is an extension of the popular children’s program Sesame Street. The show has been iconic for teaching children inclusivity and was created initially for children of color.
