'Sesame Street' creates first Muppet to have a parent in jail by Jongsstraw

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'Sesame Street' creates first Muppet to have a parent in jail

POSTED BY: JONGSSTRAW
UPDATED: Saturday, June 22, 2013 14:01
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Saturday, June 22, 2013 12:08 PM

"Those friendly, fuzzy Muppets from “Sesame Street” have helped kids open up about all sorts of serious subjects, from hunger and divorce to military deployment.

But they’re now tackling a much more unexpected issue: incarceration.

Meet Alex, the first Muppet to have a dad in jail. According to a Pew Charitable Trusts report, one in 28 children in the United States now has a parent behind bars -- more than the number of kids with a parent who is deployed -- so it’s a real issue, but it’s talked about far less because of the stigma.

That’s why the Sesame Workshop says it created the “Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration” initiative, an online tool kit intended to help kids with a parent in prison find support and comfort, and provide families with strategies and tips to talk to their children about incarceration.

For more than 40 years, “Sesame Street” has been helping kids tackle tough topics like death and divorce. With one in 28 kids having a parent behind bars, the show will now be tackling the topic of understanding jail time. NBC’s Erika Hill reports.

Alex is blue-haired and green-nosed and he wears a hoodie – you might think he’s just another carefree inhabitant of Sesame Street. But there’s sorrow in Alex’s voice when he talks about his father.

“I just miss him so much,” he tells a friend. “I usually don’t want people to know about my Dad.”

It’s easier for kids to hear such things from a Muppet than an adult, creators of the initiative noted.

“Coming from a Muppet, it’s almost another child telling their story to the children,” said Jeanette Betancourt, vice president of outreach and educational practices at the Sesame Workshop.

Alex will not be part of the regular cast on “Sesame Street,” but he’s playing a central role in the online tool kit.

Children of parents behind bars often feel sadness, shame and guilt about the situation, so they need to know they are loved and that the incarceration is not their fault, said Carol Burton, executive director of Centerforce, a non-profit dedicated to supporting families impacted by incarceration.

“There are several million children impacted by incarceration in this country,” Burton said. “No one is paying attention to them.”

The project and its unusual subject matter have garnered a lot of attention, with some observers calling it a sign of the times.

"Congratulations, America, on making it almost normal to have a parent in prison or jail," wrote a columnist on Reason.com."

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/sesame-street-creates-first-muppet-have-
parent-jail-6C10345061#

Interesting that the tax-payer funded, Kool-Aid guzzlers at PBS would have this character be a dark-skinned lad wearing a hoodie.

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Saturday, June 22, 2013 12:53 PM

WHOZIT

This will go over well with kids who don't live in the Bronx. This reply is brought to you but the number 3.

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Saturday, June 22, 2013 1:20 PM

JONGSSTRAW

I don't have a problem with it. The fact is that millions of kids have to grow up while their father or mother is in prison. That must really suck, and it's more than tragic. But I don't like the Muppet itself....it looks to me like an African-American stereotype. Why didn't they make him a white kid with a crew-cut and a White Power tee shirt? Plenty of those Aryan Nation types in our prisons, at least according to the stories I see on MSNBC's 'Lock Up.'

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Saturday, June 22, 2013 1:51 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

On January 1, 2008 more than 1 in 100 adults in the United States were in prison or jail.[15][16]

In 2008 approximately one in every 31 adults (7.3 million) in the United States was behind bars, or being monitored (probation and parole). In 2008 the breakdown for adults under correctional control was as follows: one out of 18 men, one in 89 women, one in 11 African-Americans (9.2 percent), one in 27 Latinos (3.7 percent), and one in 45 Caucasians (2.2 percent). Crime rates have declined by about 25 percent from 1988-2008.[17] 70% of prisoners in the United States are non-whites.[18] In recent decades the U.S. has experienced a surge in its prison population, quadrupling since 1980, partially as a result of mandatory sentencing that came about during the "war on drugs." Violent crime and property crime have declined since the early 1990s.[19]

from wiki

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Saturday, June 22, 2013 1:52 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Quote:
Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
But I don't like the Muppet itself....it looks to me like an African-American stereotype.

So African Americans have blue hair these days?

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Saturday, June 22, 2013 1:55 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Interesting article, could generate good discussions.

But then you have to be a dick and write this -

"Interesting that the tax-payer funded, Kool-Aid guzzlers at PBS would have this character be a dark-skinned lad wearing a hoodie. "

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Saturday, June 22, 2013 2:01 PM

JONGSSTRAW

Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:

But then you have to be a dick and write this -

"Interesting that the tax-payer funded, Kool-Aid guzzlers at PBS would have this character be a dark-skinned lad wearing a hoodie. "

That's the best line. If you don't like it and have to call me a dick, you can go fornicate yourself.

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