A new resident is moving into “Sesame Street”. With Ji-Young there is for the first time a character with Asian roots in the US children’s program.
New York – For more than 50 years “Sesame Street” has been campaigning creatively against prejudice – now a doll with Asian roots is appearing on children’s programs in the USA for the first time.
“Our new friend’s name is Ji-Young and is a seven-year-old Korean-American girl,” announced the production company Sesame Workshop on Monday in New York. The new character is obviously a reaction of children’s television to the anti-Asian riots in America in the wake of the Corona crisis.
Ji-Young’s debut is on Thanksgiving day on November 25th in the “Sesame Street” special “See Us Coming Together”, which introduces neighbors from the Asian and Pacific regions with lots of music and, among other things, at the The PBS broadcasting chain is running. “The mission of the Sesame Workshop is that children grow up smarter, stronger and friendlier.” The appreciation of every ethnic identity is also very important to “Sesame Street”.
We’re proud to announce #SeeUsComingTogether, a star-studded special celebrating Asian and Pacific Islander identities and the power of community! Join us this Thanksgiving as the gang welcomes Sesame Street’s newest resident, 7-year-old Korean-American girl Ji-Young! pic.twitter.com/34l4GkdpVl
— Sesame Street (@sesamestreet) November 15, 2021
The special should also be about hostility towards Asians and Asian-American people. Ji-Young describes how a child insulted her, saying she should “go home”. The doll then meets people who all encourage it that it lives exactly where it belongs.
The number of acts of violence against Asian or Asian people in the United States had increased significantly in the wake of the pandemic. Former US President Donald Trump had repeatedly referred to the corona virus as the “China virus” during his time in the White House. Critics accuse him of deliberately stirring up resentment with a racist utterance.
A law passed in May this year to more effectively tackle hate crimes against people of Asian descent said that between March 2020 and February 2021, 3,800 cases were reported in the United States of anti-Asian discrimination or similar incidents related to the pandemic came. A series of fatal attacks on women of Asian descent in the US state of Georgia triggered particular horror in March 2021.
“Sesame Street” has been fighting against racism since its first broadcast in 1969 in the USA. In March 2021, for example, two new black dolls moved in with little Wes and his father Elijah. dpa
