3 Reasons Why You Should Never Let Your Child Watch Sesame Street

Recently, my wife started to let our two-year-old son watch Sesame Street. She figured it would be a fun way to help him learn how to read so she started to record the episodes. But after screening some episodes, we were horrified by the messages that the show is trying to teach children. We will never let our son watch Sesame Street again.

Here is why you should never let your child watch Sesame Street:

1. Forced Transsexualism

I don’t know about you but I feel like I already see enough men pretending to be women and women pretending to be men on television. I understand that the left has an agenda and that they always feel the need to push the latest front in the culture war, but I expect that they would have the decency to leave children out of it. They don’t.

Sesame Street now has a set of new generation of muppets in addition to the old favorites like Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch. The CGI characters that appear in Abby’s Flying Fairy School are one example of these new muppets.

The premise is simple enough. The muppets are attending a school to learn how to be fairies. The whole Fairy School segment seems to be geared more toward girls than boys. After all, boys usually don’t want to become fairies. I find it disappointing that Sesame Street couldn’t find a way to make the segment more appealing to both boys and girls. But I am not going to belabor that point.

One of the muppets who is attending the Fairy School is a character called Blögg. Blögg is a furry, purple monster who doesn’t seem to be too bright. Of course, Blögg is a boy, because if he were a girl, he would be super smart.

In the episode entitled Cinderella Challenge, the characters have to participate in a challenge to earn their fairy godmother wings. Although there are female students at the school, the character that gets designated to dress up as Cinderella is Blögg.

Blögg doesn’t want to dress up as Cinderella, but he is forced to do it. As a little boy, one of the most humiliating things that can be done to you is to be forced to act like a girl. Blögg is just a cartoon character, but can you imagine how you’d feel if your son went to school and was forced to dress up like Cinderella?

What is behind this nonsense? Why did the Sesame Street writers feel the need to humiliate one of the male muppets? I can’t pretend to know for certain, but I doubt it is innocent.

2. Discrimination Against White People

I was raised to judge people based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. I have no problem with people being proud of how they look or of their ethnic background. But I do have a problem with discrimination against white people.

Sesame Street had a segment called the “Color of Me Song” where there are three adults and one muppet. All four characters have brown skin: an Indian woman, a light skinned black man, a darker skinned black man, and a darker skinned muppet girl. East Asians and whites are not represented. Here are the lyrics of the song that they sang:

Some skin is dark, Some skin is light, Some skin is brown, Some skin is white, Different colors, Different shades, It’s part being human, it’s how we’re made. Leela the Sweet Indian Lady: My skin is light, light brown like caramel. And caramel it tastes so sweet just try and you’ll tell. So brown is sweet, and I am sweet. Sweet as I can be. I love my skin, love my brown skin. Light brown, that’s the color of me. Mando the Proud Lion: My skin it is a sandy brown, it’s like the lion’s mane. And lions you know there so proud to because lions reign. So brown is proud, proud as I can be. I love my skin, love my brown skin. Sandy brown, that’s the color of me. Chris the Strong Black Guy: My skin it is a deep, deep brown. It’s like a walnut tree, and trees they grow big up and strong. You really must agree. So brown is strong and I am strong, strong as I can be. I love my skin, love my brown skin. Deep brown, that’s the color of me. Segi the Beautiful Muppet: My skin it is a dark, dark brown. Loading... It’s like a chestnut horse. And horses are so beautiful, you know that’s true of course. So brown is beautiful, and I’m beautiful, as beautiful as can be. I love my skin, love my brown skin. Dark brown, that’s the color of me.

The clear focus is on how wonderful brown skin is. Let me anticipate two objections:

The first objection is that they mention the word white, so technically all skin colors are included. But remember, this is intended for little children. The optics are what’s important. There are no white people, just brown skinned humans and a brown muppet. The message that a little kid is going to get is that it is cooler to have brown skin.

The second objection will be that Sesame Street is just trying to boost the self-esteem of brown skinned kids in a majority white culture. But why do the producers of Sesame Street, who are probably mostly privileged white people, assume that people with brown skin have self-esteem problems? Isn’t that racist?

(By the way, the commenter who composes the funniest version of this song for a white person or an East Asian person gets a (figurative) gold star. Vote for your favorite.)

Interestingly enough, if you watch Sesame Street and not just this particular episode, you will notice that only about one in six children shown are white, even though 63% of the US is still white.

And the white children that are shown are often in wheel chairs, autistic, or white boys who dance ballet. Is Sesame Street engaging in a bit of wishful thinking that all whites are weak or homosexual?

This overemphasis on making darker skinned kids feel good about themselves is negatively affecting the self-esteem of white kids. A friend of mine has a white daughter who is four years old. She has grown up in daycare and watches Sesame Street and many other popular kid shows.

Recently, my friend’s daughter brought home a drawing from daycare. It was supposed to be a self-portrait that she drew as part of a class project. But in the self-portrait, the little girl colored herself brown with black hair. In reality, this little girl has green eyes and dirty blonde hair. When her parents asked her about the picture she just shrugged her shoulders and said she wanted to be brown like everyone else.

Sesame Street was always inclusive, but in the old days it was done in a way without making a big deal of it. When the emphasis has gone so far as to make little white girls think that they are black, it has tilted too far.

3. Multiculturalism takes the place of learning letters and numbers

I have always thought that Sesame Street was supposed to teach children the alphabet, numbers, and early reading and math skills. It may have done that in the past but its current incarnation is not as focused on these skills. The episodes I have seen have decreased the amount of math and reading and replaced it with self-esteem and multiculturalism.

For instance in an episode entitled “Rakhi Road,” Leela teaches the Sesame Street gang about Rakhi, an Indian holiday “where sisters, brothers, and friends show how much they love each other by exchanging special bracelets, foods, and gifts.”

I am not a cultural barbarian. My wife and I are both bilingual. We want our children to be broad-minded and we plan to expose them to many different cultures through friends and travel.

However, at a time when SAT scores are plummeting to record lows, does it really make sense to replace academic content with the multi-cultural stuff? Wouldn’t it make more sense to teach children the more practical academic skills so that they are equipped to succeed in life? As it stands, Sesame Street thinks it is better to know what Ramadan is rather than knowing how to count.

Conclusion

If you have a young child, regardless of your race or ethnicity, don’t let them watch Sesame Street. If children watch educational programming, it is better if they learn something practical. As a parent, you can impart self-esteem to your child as well as a healthy respect for his heritage. You don’t need the pious social engineers at Sesame Street to do it for you.

Read More: 4 Reasons Why Child Circumcision Should Be Banned