‘Sesame Street’ steps up antiracism programming
Meet Elijah and Wes, father-son muppets from “Sesame Street” that star in a new series educating children on race and racism.
As part of its “ongoing commitment to racial justice,” Sesame Workshop launched its “ABCs of Racial Literacy” program Tuesday, introducing Elijah and Wes. In the first installment, titled “Explaining Race,” the father and son explain to Elmo why their skin is a different color than his red fur.
“Elmo wants to know why Wes’ skin is brown,” the fan-favorite muppet tells his new friends.
“Melanin is something that we each have inside of our bodies that make the outside of our bodies the skin color that it is,” Elijah tells Elmo. “It also gives us our eye and our hair color.”
Asked by Elmo why his skin is a “darker brown” than his 5-year-old son’s skin, Elijah elaborates on the concept of pigmentation.
“That’s a good question, Elmo,” he says. “It’s because the more melanin you have, the darker your skin looks. The color of our skin is an important part of who we are, but we should all know that it’s OK that we all look different in so very many ways.”
“Explaining Race” is one of various resources created by Sesame Workshop to
provide “age-appropriate language and strategies to answer sometimes-tough questions around race and racism,” according to Tuesday’s announcement.
Also coming soon is a follow-up short featuring muppets Sofia and Rosita, who deal with the fallout of a racist encounter at a grocery store and celebrate speaking Spanish.
— Los Angeles Times
‘Nomadland’ wins top Producers Guild award
“Nomadland” still has plenty of gas left in its tank. The Frances McDormand road drama won the top prize from the Produc
ers Guild of America on Wednesday night, adding another high-profile trophy to a shelf that already includes the Golden Globe for best drama and the Critics Choice Award for best picture.
Though “Nomadland” was already considered by most to be the Oscar frontrunner, the PGA Award offers an excellent field test of how the film can fare in a group that contains a significant number of Oscar voters and uses a similar preferential ballot.
Since 2009, when the guild and Oscars both expanded the number of their best-film nominees, the two groups have dif
fered only three times in their ultimate selection.
Still, one of those variances was just one year ago, when the guild chose the war epic “1917” and the Oscars instead went for “Parasite.”
Though “Nomadland” has had the strongest awards-season run so far, its guild dominance is not absolute.
At last weekend’s Writers Guild Awards, where “Nomadland” was deemed ineligible, the winners were “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” for adapted screenplay and “Promising Young Woman” for original screenplay.