Rewriting Sesame Place Apology: Making it Right When We've Got it Wrong

How do companies restore community when they’ve broken it?

How do organizations effectively apologize when they harm those that they serve?

You’ve probably seen the video.

If you haven’t here’s a link here.

In an original video posted on Sunday July 17th by an African American mother in Philadelphia at a Sesame Place theme park where there is a parade. The video shows two young Black girls with outstretched arms, waiting for the Sesame Street character Rosita who was approaching as part of a parade. After high-fiving other people along the parade route, the character waves her hand at the two girls and walks away.

The video has gone viral being viewed over 300K times, with even Kelly Rowland of Destiny Child fame weighing in. Other families have shared other experiences where Black children appear to be overlooked by Sesame Street characters. Sesame Street has since shared a statement citing policy and obscured vision of performers while in costume.

This incident calls to mind how Italian soccer club Juventus apologized after a tweet was posted on its women's team's official account August of 2021 showing a player making a racist gesture towards Asian people. The Italian soccer club sparked outrage on after it tweeted a photo showing defender Cecilia Salvai using her fingers to pull her eyes back while wearing a red training cone on her head. The post also included emojis that mimicked the eye-pulling gesture.

The photograph was swiftly taken down but not before it prompted a ferocious backlash and accusations of "blatant racism" from the online community.

"We sincerely apologize that our tweet, which was not meant to cause controversy or have any racial undertones, may have offended anyone," the club said in a statement published on its official Twitter account shortly after the post was taken down.

It is clear after reading these statements of apology by both Sesame Street and Juventus, while they clear in their acknowledgement, they are missing key elements to bring authentic restoration.

Three Simple Steps to Make it Right When We’ve Got it Wrong:

Step 1 - Own It (Past): This deals with the past action or incident. Remove the “may have” from the apology. Including “may have” puts the onus on those negatively affected by the actions/incident. Refrain from using policy, intention, or history as an excuse. No blame shifting, no shirking responsibility, just complete and total acceptance. Make it personal, make it human, make it sincere.

Step 2-Change It (Present): This addresses shifting in the present shift what could have been different in the past. This is adopting new actions and attitudes to change problematic behavior going forward.

Step 3-Pay it Forward (Future): This focuses on making a right investment in the future, to help mitigate the wrong investment in the past. This can include investment in time, energy, effort, and even finance. Beyond addressing what past actions, it opens the door to new possibilities. These possibilities can include new partnerships, new opportunities, new understanding, and new connections.

Using the above principles, I would like to rewrite Sesame Street’s apology:

“This past Sunday at Sesame Place in Philadelphia, there was an incident involving one of our performers that was captured on video. When I saw the clip, my heart sank. Our brand has long centered on inclusivity, equality, and community in all forms. The look on the faces of those two Black girls feeling “unseen” by one of their Sesame Street heroes is both haunting and heartbreaking. It harkens back to old memories of our shared racial history, where children of color weren't given the opportunity to be children without the ugly specter of racism.

Since 1969, we have endeavored to model a different reality for children and the families that love them. Though I am confident that it was not the performers conscious intention to bypass and exclude those two girls, we must be judged by our impact, not just our intention. We are making immediate adaptations to our policies, our procedures, including but not limited to attendants that walk with performers to help them engage more consistently with our guests. We are also scheduling diversity, equity and inclusion strategy/training/coaching sessions company wide to ensure that while this is a part of our past, it won’t be a part of our future. And in the unlikely event that it is, we will move quickly, appropriately, and humanely to do our part to be better for both our employees and special guests.

Beyond this public apology, we are inviting the family of these two girls for a private Sesame Street experience, a spot on our television show, and hosting a special event for any family that has had a similar experience at any of our theme parks worldwide. We apologize to these guests for delivering the experience they expected and we commit to do our best to earn back their and all guests trust and support.”

To restore, build, and believe in community with one another personally/professionally it will require courage, humility, and vision for a different future.

While none of us have everything, all of us have something, and when we add up all our somethings…we have everything.