The panelists of The View, including Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Joy Behar and Lindsay Granger – are responding to a viral video from Sesame Place in Pennsylvania where two Black girls were seemingly ignored by a performer dressed as the Sesame Street muppet Rosita.
Goldberg pointed out that the park is owned by SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment and believes the video is sparking consequences.
“And if you think they did not catch hell for what was done, it’s crazy,” Goldberg said. “The two little girls are 6-year-olds, they are cousins, and Rosita was their favorite character.”
Shortly after the video went viral, similar videos emerged showing performers dressed as Rosita ignoring Black children. Since the videos have emerged, the Sesame Workshop issued an apology and said it will conduct bias training.
“Rosita seems to be a repeat offender,” said Hostin. Goldberg then went on to reveal she talked with the people at 'Sesame Street 'about the video, which is generating a firestorm of controversy
“Well, I’ll tell you why that’s happened, because I talked to the people at Sesame Street…because I work with them a lot, and I said, ‘What the hell?’” Goldberg declared. “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,” she 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.’”
