Sesame Place Under Fire For Snubbing Two Black Girls in Viral Video

A now-viral video shows a Sesame Place park employee dressed as Rosita from Sesame Street dismissing two Black girls during a parade.

Sesame Place is being criticized after a now-viral video shows two Black girls being rejected by a park employee dressed as Rosita from long-running children series Sesame Street. In the clip from Sunday (July 17), Rosita is seen high-fiving two white parkgoers, before shaking her head "no" and walking away from two Black girls during a parade. After being dismissed by Rosita, the two girls appear confused and disheartened.

On Instagram, the mother of the two girls wrote a scathing caption directed towards Sesame Place.

“I’m going to keep posting this, because this had me hot," she wrote. "We were on our way out of sesame place and the kids wanted to stop to see the characters. THIS DISGUSTING person blatantly told our kids NO then proceeded to hug the little white girl next to us!”

“Then when I went to complain about it, they looking at me like I’m crazy," the mother continued. "I asked the lady who the character was and I wanted to see a supervisor and she told me SHE DIDNT KNOW !!” she continued. “I will never step foot in @sesameplace ever again.”

A separate video shows the park employee in the Rosita costume ignoring another Black child.

According to Billboard, Kelly Rowland has responded to the clip of the two Black girls, jokingly saying "had that been me, that whole parade would've been in flames."

Sesame Place has since responded to Sunday's incident claiming that the "no" gesture was not to offend the two Black girls, but to respond to another person in the crowd who wanted their child to be held for a photo. Sesame Place says the park employee is "devastated" at the backlash and the Philadelphia theme park has invited the family back for a meet and greet with characters.

Check out responses to the theme park below.