‘Sesame Street’ Bringing In New ‘Black’ Muppets To Educate Children On Racial Issues

Sesame Street has been one of the most consistent shows to have provided quality children’s entertainment. As it has stayed with its child viewers for being both catchy as well as educational, it has always confronted the challenge of teaching kids about sensitive topics.

As the show’s pattern has always been to introduce a new muppet to teach children about each sensitive topic, this time the show will do the same. With the Sesame Workshop introducing the topic “The ABCs of Racial Literacy,” two new muppets have been brought into the fold. Wes and his father Elijah will serve to facilitate the understanding of race and identity into children.

Since Sesame Street uses its famous “science-based whole-child model,” it’ll employ it to help children understand racial diversity in a better light, and grow sensitive to its intricacies. The show’s first episode “Explaining What is Race?” has been given an official synopsis.

When Elmo notices that some of the leaves in the park match his red fur and some match his friend Wes’s brown skin, he wonders how skin gets its color. Wes’s dad Elijah explains it’s from melanin—something everyone has in their bodies that gives us our skin, eye, and hair color. These things make us who we are, and many people call this race. But like the leaves on a tree, the colors are most beautiful when they are standing together!

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“The ABCs of Racial Literacy” is already available on HBO Max, though the same cannot be said for all the other new episodes of the show. Other videos are available on their page “Coming Together” which is a platform for parents to their children about racial identity through the use of the workshop’s resources.