(Observer Network News) First look at a picture, do you think that in this picture, the Muppet characters see two black girls?
Recently, the Sesame Street Amusement Park in Philadelphia, USA, caused controversy because of this picture, and the puppet character Rosita was suspected of discriminating against two black girls, deliberately ignoring them and waving at them. But this morning (18th), Sesame Street officials said that the actor wearing a ragdoll suit, there is a blind spot, not aimed at anyone, and "deliberately targeting two little girls" is everyone's misunderstanding; The statement also stressed that Rosita's cast was extremely shocked by these misunderstandings.
In the hot comment area of sesame street's official account, there was a lot of doubt, and the comment with the highest number of likes wrote, "Who wrote this public relations draft?" College interns can do better than this," and netizens said, "It's just an excuse, I've watched the video many times, and I'm pretty sure Rosita saw them."
Video loading...
"Sesame Street" is a well-known American children's television series, Rosita is set from Mexico, likes to play guitar, speaks fluent English and Spanish, and likes to express her love for others with hugs.
On the 17th local time, a netizen shared a video with a child watching a float parade in Sesame Street Park on ins, in which, accompanied by background music, Rosita and passers-by high-fived, two black little girls put their hands out in advance to wait for interaction, as a result, Rosita walked in front of them when the footsteps paused, and then swung her hand and turned away, the little girl looked very lost.
The netizen angrily exclaimed, "I'm really angry! The child wanted to see the characters in Sesame Street, and as a result Rosita said no directly to us, but hugged the little white girl next to me, when I went to complain, the staff looked at me, as if looking at a madman, I asked the other party, who is the person in charge, the other party actually said that he did not know, will not come again, in fact, I still want to get my money back. ”
On Twitter, the video was viewed more than 2 million times, and many netizens were dissatisfied with the behavior of Rosita's actor, "Am I reading it wrong?" High-fived whites and ignoring black kids? "Children are innocent, they should not be treated like this";
"I never knew sesame street was even racist? Nauseating. ”
"I used to take my children to Sesame Street, but I won't go again."
On the 18th local time, Sesame Street issued a situation note, saying that the actors were wearing ragdoll suits, sometimes it was difficult to see below, so they would miss the hug requests of tourists, and the park and rosita's actors had a conversation, the other party said that his swing was not aimed at anyone, but there were too many people shouting to take a photo, but this was not allowed, so he waved his hand, not deliberately ignoring the little girl, the actor said that he was shocked by these misunderstandings. The statement said it had apologized to the two little girls.
In the statement, Sesame Street stressed that the amusement park's brand, park and employees represent all forms of tolerance and equality, so we cannot tolerate any behavior that violates this theme here, "We are committed to making every family and every child here have the best experience." ”
It is worth noting that the announcement was only posted on its official ins, which is also the platform with the fewest number of fans among all its official accounts, with just over 110,000 fans, and on Twitter, where the video sparked criticism, its official account has nearly 2 million followers.
For the response of Sesame Street, many netizens did not buy it, "Who wrote the public relations draft?" College interns can write better than that";
"After watching it many times, the actor obviously saw two little girls and then ignored them, and the response was really disappointing" "It's not like an apology, it's more like trying to cover up the facts".
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.