‘Sesame Place Sallie’: White woman tells Black woman at Sesame Place to ‘go back where you came from’

This article originally appeared on The Philadelphia Tribune.

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A white woman was recorded using racist language, cursing at and raising her middle finger toward a Black woman while they all waited in line for a ride at Sesame Place on Monday.

The video was recorded and posted to Instagram on Monday by Zaafirah Moore, who said the white woman told her to “go back where you came from.” Moore, 26, was born and raised in West Philadelphia.

By Wednesday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than 5,000 times on Instagram and reported by Yahoo News and The Grio. People online have dubbed the white woman “Sesame Place Sallie.”

Moore told the Tribune on Wednesday that the confrontation started when a young white girl repeatedly touched a young Black girl’s hair and an older Black woman who appeared to be related to the young Black girl asked the white girl to stop. The white woman, who appeared to be related to the young white girl, responded by cursing at the older Black woman, and the two exchanged profanities “in very loud voices,” Moore said.

Most of the children in line were under the age of 10, Moore said.

“I asked them if they would stop cursing in front of all of these children and that is when she started cursing at me,” Moore said. “I guess she thought that we were with the girl because we are Black. But I had never seen her or the woman she was with before in my life.”

The white woman cursed at Moore and said “go back where you came from,” echoing comments President Donald Trump made to four congresswomen of color last month.

That was when Moore started recording.

“She called me everything in the book,” Moore said.

In the video, the irate white woman says “go f— yourself” to Moore, calls her a “b—-” and thrusts her middle finger in Moore’s face before she attempts to take the camera from Moore.

Moore said Sesame Place staff eventually intervened and escorted the white woman out of the Bucks County amusement park. Moore said she saw Sesame Place staff give the white woman what appeared to be tickets so she could return to the park on another day; however, Sesame Place denied that the woman received new tickets in a comment on one of its Facebook posts Tuesday morning.

Sesame Place representatives wrote in the comments of their Facebook post: “Sesame Place only welcomes respect for others and does not tolerate this type of behavior. The guest depicted in that video was promptly removed from the park and will not be permitted to return. Creating safe and enjoyable experiences for all guests is our top priority.”

They continued in another comment: “Our team deeply regrets that any park guest would have this experience in our park. It runs counter to everything we stand for. To be clear, the guest depicted in that video was not given tickets and will not be permitted to return to the park.”

Moore said the amusement park has not contacted her directly about the situation.