Posted on 03/23/2021 9:52:58 AM PDT by Stravinsky
(Excerpt from the middle as the beginning is just about the person who got the part)
The decision to give Wes and Elijah a racial identity—and to have them talk about what it’s like to be Black in America—represents a marked shift in approach. “After last summer with the racial unrest that happened and the murder of George Floyd, we collectively as an organization decided that the only way that we could go about dismantling racism was by being bold and explicit,” says Kay Wilson Stallings, the executive vice president of creative and production for Sesame Workshop. “People were working remotely. People were feeling a lot of emotions, and it was almost like everyone had the same realization. If not Sesame, who’s going to address this? It felt like everyone had the same, ‘Yes, we’ve got to do something about it, and the first way to address it is that we need to define racism for 3-year-olds.'”
As a result, Sesame Workshop and its team of educational advisers developed Coming Together, a racial-justice initiative with an educational framework and curriculum, which in the eight months since it launched has included a town hall with CNN about racism and protest, as well as a special, The Power of We, about speaking out against systemic inequality and prejudice. In one viral clip from the June town hall, Elmo’s dad Louie explains the demonstrations Elmo has been seeing outside his window: “On Sesame Street, we all love and respect one another. Across the country, people of color, especially in the Black community, are being treated unfairly because of how they look, their culture, race and who they are. What we are seeing is people saying enough is enough. They want to end racism.”
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
There goes the neighborhood
I thought the whole purpose behind having Muppets of all different colors was to preclude and racial biases?.................
Green red and yellow...now black.
Did they ever do any episodes in the 1970s about what it is like growing up with your parents committing thousands of terrorist bombings as the Weather Underground and other militant Leftist groups did?
“My parents are evasive and wanted by ‘The Man’”, I feel neglected!”
So .. so ... progressive..
Until you realize there’s no “white” muppets on Sesame Street.
(Ernie is orange, Bert is yellow, the Count is purple...)
Roosevelt Franklin, what you say?
I say, the very first letter is the letter “A”
It’s not easy being green.
And I’ll add - by adding a “black” muppet what do they mean? A brown muppet? A brown muppet with a fro or pigtails? Or a brown muppet that speaks Ebonics?
Is that not itself... racist stereotyping?
It’s about damn time, PBS. Bunch of racists. Where will they work? At Planned Muppethood?
Someone out there is already designing a Trans puppet.
Wait and see.
Im tellin ya - I just want some of this privilege they claim I have.
Shouldn’t be too hard. Just add Gonzo’s nose to Miss Piggy.
Will they teach Ebonics?
The Count Chocula “Ha ha ha ha ha... wa two fre fo fi sic seben ay ni Ha ha ha ha ha”
And yeah, those are Muppets. Different deal. But I couldn’t resist the joke.
Nuggets?
I always found the dearth of car jackings on sesame street to be very disturbing indeed. I suppose shoot ‘em up elmo needed a buddy
“After last summer with the racial unrest that happened and the murder of George Floyd, we collectively as an organization decided...”
Ernie is orange, Burt is yellow. Cookie Monster is blue, Oscar the grouch is green.
What will the new black “puppets” be? Tan? Brown-ish?
What are their ratings like these days? I have 3 sons, none of them liked Sesame St. I watched it as a kid in the early 1970’s. Still remember many of the jingles. It was good back then.
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