The children's television show Sesame Street has introduced two new Black puppets to help teach young kids about different races.
The two puppets are named Wes and Elijah; a father and son who have featured a recent video created by the workshop behind the long-running ABC children's TV series, in a discussion about ethnicity and skin color.
Take a look at the two new puppets in the video below:According to The Independent, the video was released on Tuesday, March 23, as part of Sesame Street’s digital content series called "The ABCs of Racial Literacy."
In it, the character of Elmo asks Wes why his skin is brown, prompting his father dad Elijah to explain the concept of melanin and skin pigmentation.
In a recent press release, Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, the senior VP at Sesame Workshop, explained that the initiative was designed to foster open conversations regarding racial matters with young children, stating:
"Children are not color blind – not only do they first notice differences in the race in infancy, but they also start forming their own sense of identity at a very young age.
“The ABCs of Racial Literacy is designed to foster open, age-appropriate conversations among families and support them in building racial literacy.
"By encouraging these much-needed conversations through Coming Together, we can help children build a positive sense of identity and value the identities of others."
A number of Twitter users have since taken to social media to react positively to the puppets.
For instance, one person wrote: "I’m sorry, but learning that Sesame Street has black puppets named Wes and Elijah to teach young children racial literacy is so nice to me this morning!"
Meanwhile, another person stated: "This is such a beautiful, momentous and needed start."
Another person shared an image of the cast of the earlier seasons of the show, and wrote: "Anyone who thinks that Sesame Street wasn’t built on the foundation of tackling racism and segregation clearly wasn’t paying close attention."
Yet this is not the first time that Sesame Street has featured a puppet used to represent an ethnic minority.
For instance, during the early 1970s, the show introduced the character of Roosevelt Franklin, an African-American muppet played by Black actor and writer Matt Robinson. However, the character's skin tone was light purple, not a natural brown.
