adminSesame Street has always pressed for inclusion; now, in the wake of the national reckoning on race, it’s going further: teaching children to stand up against racism.
Sesame Workshop – the non-profit, educational organisation behind Sesame Street – will later this month air the half-hour anti-racist special The Power of We and hopes families will watch together.
The special defines racism for younger viewers and shows how it can be hurtful. It urges children who encounter racism or hear someone else be the victim of it to call it out.
“When you see something that’s wrong, speak up and say, “That´s wrong” and tell an adult,” six-year-old Gabrielle the Muppet advises.
The special, composed of little skits and songs in a Zoom-like format, will stream on HBO Max and PBS Kids and air on PBS stations beginning October 15.
In one animated skit, a Black Muppet is told by a white Muppet that he can’t dress up like a superhero because they’re only white.
Though hurt, the Black Muppet nevertheless refuses to stop playing superheroes, saying they can come in all colours. The white Muppet soon apologises. In the song ‘How Do You Know?’ racism is dealt with head-on.
Sesame Workshop has included online resources for parents to help guide conversations with their child about race, including talking, singing and breathing together. — dailymail.
Online Reporter