Rev. Jesse Jackson Sends Letter To Sesame Place, Shares Ideas To End Racial Discrimination Amid Recent Controversy

July 29, 2022 by Monique Nicole in Latest News with 0 Comments

Rev. Jesse Jackson Sends Letter To Sesame Place, Ideas To End Racial Discrimination Amid Recent Controversy

It looks like Rev. Jesse Jackson is stepping up and getting involved in the recent Sesame Place racial discrimination controversy!

According to reports, the political/civil rights activist is curating solutions that will make the theme park more comfortable and enjoyable for black children. Jesse Jackson, 80, suggests that SeaWorld– which owns Sesame Place Philadelphia– should bring in African-Americans to their board of directors, spend money on Black-owned businesses and hire an African-American firm to handle cultural sensitivity training for staff.

Jesse Jackson

Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote a detailed letter to the CEO of SeaWorld saying that the company has a chance to turn a negative into a positive and do the right thing in a situation where most companies come up short and don’t correct the problem at hand.

As you may recall, earlier this month a now-viral clip was shared online of a black family seemingly being discriminated against while visiting Sesame Place in Philadelphia. In the video, it appears like the Sesame Place character Rosita purposely ignores two black girls but interacts with the white park participants.

Initially following the public outrage surrounding the incident, Sesame Place seemingly tried to deny claims of racism within the park. However, as more videos came out from black families with similar stories, the theme park issued another statement promising to train their staff better. But it seems like that apology came a little too late.

On Wednesday, (July 27) the Burns family– a different family than the one seen in the viral video– filed a class action lawsuit against Sesame Place for the discrimination they allegedly experienced while visiting the park. According to the suit, the Maryland family is claiming that during their own trip to the infamous theme park on June 18, 5-year-old Kennedi Burns, who is black, was purposely ignored by four Sesame Place characters. The suit adds that the characters had no issue interacting with white families/children.

Rev. Jesse Jackson says he’s seen this incident with Sesame Place play out several times over the years in his fight for freedom and equality. he says discriminatory acts will always return without sincere actions from corporations. In His letter to SeaWorld CEO, Marc Swanson, Jackson said:

“When I saw the now-viral video shared by Jodi Brown, I was shocked but unfortunately not surprised. We have watched discrimination in the form of excessive force by the police, just as we have seen wrongful hiring practices, but to see discrimination against our innocent children is a line that we cannot allow the enemies of progress to think that they can cross.”

He adds,

“We must collectively let SeaWorld and other companies know that we will not accept racism against anyone and certainly not our innocent children.”

See full letter here.

Jesse Jackson says he’s trying to arrange a meeting with SeaWorld’s CEO and he wants to not only help SeaWorld end discriminatory practices in their company, but other theme parks as well.What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below![VIA]