A federal jury has rejected a discrimination suit against Sesame Place brought by five Black and Hispanic families who said costumed characters ignored their children, writes Jeremy Roebuck for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The verdict comes two years after a viral video threw the Langhorne amusement park in a firestorm of racial controversy. The video appeared to depict a Sesame Place employee, dressed as the monster Rosita, rebuffing high fives from two Black girls.

Once the video was posted on social media, hundreds of other families surfaced with more complaints of their children being passed over at the park due to the color of their skin.

The amusement park’s lawyers claimed that race played no role in the characters seemingly ignoring their children. Instead, they blamed the size of the crowds in the park and the cumbersome costumes that limited the visibility of the performers who wore them.

“These young people were working at Sesame Place because they’re performers, not because they are racists,” said park attorney Michelle Pardo.

After a six-day trial, it took the jury less than three hours to reject the families’ case of racial bias against the park.

Read more about the Sesame Place lawsuit and the allegations against its employees in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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