Sesame Street Introduces Two Black Muppets For Series Teaching Kids About Race

Sesame Street has begun a new series to teach kids about race and identity, which features two new Black muppet characters. Sesame Workshop released the first episode of their new Sesame Street in Communities videos “The ABCs of Racial Literacy” featuring the new characters of Wes and his father Elijah, who explain the concept of race to Elmo.

The series is part of Sesame Workshop’s Coming Together initiative, described as follows:

“Coming Together is Sesame Workshop’s commitment to racial justice. We believe in a world where all children can reach their full potential and humanity—and do so in celebration of their races, ethnicities, and cultures. Together with experts, we’ve designed developmentally appropriate resources to help you guide your child to be smarter, stronger, and kinder—and an upstander to racism.”

The first episode is titled “Explaining What is Race?” and has the following 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!