Black Baltimore Family Who Sued Sesame Place For Discrimination Blasts CEO After His No Show

Jodi Brown, the Baltimore mother of a young Black girl who appeared to be ignored by Sesame Place mascots in a viral video, and her attorney is considering all options after the CEO of SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, which owns Sesame Place, didn’t uphold his promise to hear them out.

As The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, the Brown family, including the matriarch, her daughter, Skylar, and niece, Nylah, both six years old, were expecting to sit down with Marc Swanson for a mediation meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 30. The family’s attorney, B’Ivory LaMarr, said in a statement that the chief executive was a no show and attorneys and corporate reps instead greeted them after waiting for hours.

“While he and his corporate executives sat in comfort in the skyline suite, the Brown family stood in the lobby for hours awaiting word as to whether or not they would be heard,” LaMarr said in the statement.

LaMarr said he and the family directed their concerns to the designated reps, but the occasion did not follow the mediation procedure.

“To appease the Brown family and the community at large, we were presented with the illusion that SeaWorld Entertainment wanted to “do right” and mediate the matter; however, what was labeled a mediation this week, shifted to a meeting where the Browns were finally able to voice their concerns and then offered a sandwich and cookies,” LaMarr continued, per the news outlet.

Now, Lamarr says the Browns are “tired of talking.”

In July, the family filed a $25 million discrimination lawsuit against SeaWorld Parks, owner of Sesame Place, in response to a video of Sesame Street character Rosita snubbing Skylar and Nylah, BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported. The clip shows both girls waving and reaching out to the performer, but Rosita is seen acknowledging a white child. Soon after the video was posted, social media users chimed in to tell their stories.

“After nearly two months of engagement, it has become evident and we believe that the leadership at SeaWorld Entertainment does not respect the political power of African-American civil rights leaders and their outreach within the community,” LaMarr said in a release, per CBS News. “We further believe that they do not respect the African-American dollars that help make SeaWorld and Sesame Place profitable.”

Sesame Place has since issued multiple apologies. They also required that all employees complete bias training until the end of September 2022, undergo a racial equity assessment, and participate in a developing anti-bias training and education program.