No games! The family of the two Black children who were denied at Sesame Place in Philadelphia has decided to lawyer up!
As we previously reported, a now-viral video shows the moment the character Rosita gives high fives to people in front of the 2 young girls. As the character comes closer to the girls, Rosita can be seen ignoring them and walking by. The family says they’re “completely appalled” by what they call the intentional mistreatment of the young girls and they claim they were verbally told “no” during the brief exchange. They are also not here for Sesame Place’s apology which also said that they quickly addressed the behavior of the employee.
B’Ivory LaMarr, the attorney repping the family says to TMZ, “While we hate to rush to judgment to consider ‘race’ as the motivating factor to explain the performer’s actions, such actions both before and after the young girl’s request only lead to one conclusion.” Now, strangely enough, more videos have spread since Saturday’s incident, which the family thinks shows a clear pattern and not just some random incident. LaMarr said he wants to investigate the incident by interviewing other people who were in attendance, and evaluating other Rosita videos popping up online. He noted to TMZ that all options are on the table.
While they haven’t shared their full plans yet, the mother of the two girls was extremely upset by their experience. Following the first apology, the mother released a statement saying,
“I never asked for that character to take a picture and As I am watching my video I don’t believe that family asked either. I wholeheartedly feel as though that statement was released to save face. Also, a [manager] reached out to me earlier via phone convo. I responded via dm to confirm.” She continued: “Since the post went viral no communication was had since then! [Sesame Place] instead of trying to save face you should of gave a public apology to my girls! That statement is disrespectful and distasteful. Talk about adding insult to injury. I will re-post this video every day until it is rectified.”
Other people who are not buying their apology is famed attorney Ben Crump. He called the incident “absolutely heartbreaking” for the “two young queens.”
Sesame Place has since issued another apology following more videos that have come forth. It read,
“Sesame Workshop is aware of the recent incident at Sesame Place Philadelphia, which we take very seriously. What these children experienced is unacceptable. 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,” Sesame Workshop tweeted.