In a situation of 'I’m not crying you’re crying', the children's TV show, Sesame Street released a video called . In the video, Wes and Alan sing a song to comfort their friend Analyn, who is Filipino American, after a boy at the park made fun of the shape of her eyes.
The song includes lyrics such as, “Your eyes tell the story of your family. They show where you came from, and how you came to be. The colour, the shape and the size should always make you proud of your eyes.”
Someone must be chopping some onions in here as I’m tearing up.
It’s no secret that anti-Asian bullying has been on the rise since the pandemic started, not just in America but in Australia too. The statistics speak for themselves, with revealing one in five Asian-Australians had been physically threatened or attacked since the pandemic started because of their cultural heritage.
The racism of course, happens to children too. A found that more than 40 per cent of Asian-Australian students had experienced racism from fellow schoolmates. This number has more than likely increased since the pandemic started.
It’s not easy figuring out how to talk to children about racism but these conversations must happen. And while there is much we can do about race at home, some of the onus must also lie with the media and TV broadcasters.
In this instance Sesame Street has figured out a way to bring up a heartbreaking incident that many young children watching the program would be able to relate to, and turned it on its head.
Rather than using words of complacency, or even a tone of lecturing, they have instead shown Analyn how she can embrace her features. But not only that, the way the whole incident is handled, with Analyn’s feelings being validated before Alan who is Japanese-American talks about how he too faced similar situations, is a masterclass in many ways about what adults can do when talking to children about racism.
And then there is the song. If you weren’t crying before it would certainly bring a tear to your eyes after hearing it.
Sesame Street hasn’t shied away from tackling tough topics.
Sesame Street is a show that for many adults has been part of their childhood. But as time has gone by it hasn’t shied away from tackling tough topics. For example, after the death of George Floyd that kicked off global Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, the show to create a “town hall” for children and their families to talk about racism. This included some of our favourite Sesame Street characters coming together to answer kids' questions about racism.
As have shown it’s important for different cultural groups to see themselves portrayed positively on our screens. It’s especially important for children to have issues that impact them portrayed on the shows they watch.
The for example discovered that it was important for children that they “not only have a diverse universe of characters but also that these characters have diverse characteristics. It’s okay for characters to have non-American accents, but good guys – not just bad guys – should have them too.”
For many adults however, to finally have issues of racist bullying openly discussed on a kids' TV show is a momentous occasion.
So many of us grew up feeling like things that happened to us as kids didn’t matter. The bullying, the racism, the microaggressions we faced on school ground and outside it were matters that didn’t deserve a larger discussion. Instead we internalised feelings of being marginalised.
To see that the tide is finally changing little by little, makes me feel optimistic. Especially because of the recognition, no matter how small, that our features - ones that we once got bullied about - are not to be hidden or changed. but parts of us that ought to be celebrated.
As Analyn sings at the end of the song, “I can always be proud of my eyes.”
Someone please pass me the tissues.
Saman Shad is a playwright, scriptwriter and freelance journalist.
