Staff editorial: Sesame Street goes Afrocentric

Sesame Street has revolutionized itself once again.

Having caused buzz with the introduction of an HIV-positive character in the Nigerian version of the children’s series, Sesame Street recently featured a little black girl singing the bouncy tune “I Love My Hair.”

“I really, really, really love my hair,” the puppet sings. “Wear a clippy, or in a bow. Or let it sit in an afro. My hair looks good in a cornrow.”

As she sings, she is shown with an abundance of different hairstyles: cornrows, braids, pigtails, dreadlocks and a short natural afro. She sings and dances while smiling, ending her song with a confident exclamation of “I love my hair!”

Sesame Street tackling a topic such as loving one’s hair is a needed effort in guiding children toward self-acceptance, and it helps parents find ways to discuss these complex and overlooked issues.

While something as menial as hair may not seem important for everyone, this could very well be the push needed to help a little black girl with thick hair embrace it.

Hollywood is known to portray beauty in a cookie-cutter way. Often, hair is one of the assets that stays the same. It’s rare that women rock their natural hair, especially women of different ethnicities, because the social standard of beautiful hair is long and shiny, blowing in the wind and falling perfectly back into place.

Even though the issue of pushing self-confidence should start with the parents, turning on a television to see Beyonce in a long dirty blonde weave doesn’t exactly set the example for a young black girl.

A world of blonde dye jobs and extensions doesn’t encourage multifaceted beauty among little white girls either.

A puppet singing about how she loves being different could be a calling to not only a black girl with thick hair, but also to a Latino boy whose “R”s roll more than his classmates’, or to a Caucasian girl with freckles, or to a Muslim girl that wears a hijab.

While some might say that it took long enough to have a character that represents cultural acceptance, efforts that are made slowly but surely shouldn’t be given great criticism.

Revolutionary work will never happen soon enough. This sort of effort should always be applauded, especially when geared toward bringing youth one step closer to being more culturally informed than the previous generation.

Hopefully, as children’s shows develop these roads toward self-love and accepting what is different, adult series will show the same determination.