Whoopi Goldberg SLAMS Viral Sesame Place Video: 'You Have To Teach People'

Actress Whoopi Goldberg had harsh words for Sesame Place after a video showed a Sesame Street character named Rosita appearing to snub two girls at a parade.

On Sunday morning, digital strategist Leslie Mac revealed that her 4-year-old daughter, Paige, and her friend, weren't greeted by a costumed Sesame Street character during a parade at Sesame Street Philadelphia.

The video went viral, prompting Sesame Place to release a statement saying that the costumed performer didn't see the two girls; however, their "apology" was met with even more backlash, prompting Sesame Workshop - a licensed partner of Sesame Place - to put out their own apology. Sesame Place then followed up with yet another apology and said that they would conduct racial bias training amongst staff members to prevent the incident from happening again.

That being said, the video came up on "The View" where many co-hosts thought that the employee behind the snub should be fired.

The full four-minute video, which can be seen below, shows all of the hosts weighing in on the incident. Several of the co-hosts agreed the performer should be fired for the perceived snub.

"The Chase" host Sara Haines didn't seem to feel that racial bias training would solve the underlying issue. As she said, "If you have to teach inclusion and how to treat a young child, they need to be in another job."

Co-host Lindsey Granger also agreed that something seemed fishy in Sesame Place's response. At first, they seemed to protect the employee by saying they didn't see them, and then seemingly changed their mind, saying that racial bias training was suddenly necessary to conduct in the workplace.

"What bothers me the most is that it started from 'we didn't see them' to now 'we're doing diversity and inclusion training,'" she noted.

"The Stand" actress Whoopi Goldberg said that she actually talked to the people at Sesame Street. "Well, I'll tell you why that's happened because I talked to the people at Sesame Street. Okay. Because I work with them a lot, and I said, 'What the h---?'" Whoopi explained.

"And basically they said, 'Listen. We're all over this because our characters — the children must feel like these characters are the characters they expect them to be. So, we're all over this,'" she continued.

"So I suspect a lot of what they're going to be doing, all the diversity training, all that stuff, is coming from Sesame Workshop saying, 'Oh no. Whoever is dealing with these characters, they're going to have the information they need. We're sorry we have to talk to you like this, but clearly, you need to understand you can't do that for kids,'" she added.

The discussion then turned to "What if this had happened to our children?" with many of the hosts agreeing they would "bring the thunder" down on the Sesame Place theme park if their children received the kind of video that the two girls in the video received.

At one point, co-host Joy Behar even joked that it might have been really Mel Gibson under the Rosita costume. Behar also felt that the performer underneath the costume should be fired, especially considering that this isn't the first time that a video has gone viral showing "Rosita" appearing to snub a young black child. However, it should be noted that it is unclear whether the same employee is underneath the costume in each of the videos.

Whoopi Goldberg concluded the discussion by saying it's necessary for Sesame Place to explain why they're going to fire the employee. "Well, before you fire 'em, teach them why they're being fired, and then let them go. You have to teach people," Goldberg said. However, at this time, it's not clear if the employee will actually be let go.

Those interested can watch the full segment in the YouTube video below.