Sesame Street introduces new black characters to teach children about race and racism

Wes and Elijah are two new Muppets who have joined Sesame Street. Photo / Sesame Workshop

Sesame Street has introduced two new characters, a black father and son in an effort to educate children on race and racism.

Wes and Elijah, were introduced to children through a short video on Youtube.

In the video popular character Elmo asks why Wes' skin is brown, his father, Elijah talks to Elmo explaining the concept of melanin and race.

"Elmo wants to know why Wes' skin is brown," the fan favourite character asked.

"I know why, Elmo! My mum and dad told me, it's because of melanin, right Dad?" Wes responds.

"The decision to give Wes and Elijah a racial identity—and to have them talk about what it’s like to be Black in America—represents a marked shift in approach." https://t.co/MFdHo2hLSs

— Anne Stark Ditmeyer (@pretavoyager) March 23, 2021

"That's right," Elijah confirms, later adding, "Melanin is something that we each have inside our bodies that makes the outside of our bodies the skin colour that it is. It also gives us our eye and our hair colour."

"The colour of our skin is an important part of who we are but we should all know that it's okay that we all look different in so very many ways," he said.

The assistant vice-president for US social impact at Sesame Workshop, Rocio Galarza told Good Morning America the video and others are a way to explain difficult concepts about race to young children.

"Young kids, since infancy, start understanding differences and giving value to those differences," she told the outlet. "The idea here is, how do we address it in an age-appropriate way?"

Wes and Elijah are just a small part of the show's ABCs of Racial Literacy programme which was created to help children and their families celebrate their "unique identities" and offer "strategies to answer sometimes tough questions around race and racism".