"I think it was honestly inspired, unfortunately, by the past year and the rise in, you know, attacks and racist incidents, especially during Covid." - Kathleen Kim, Sesame Street puppeteer. Associated Press, November 15, 2021/New York Times
Kudos to Sesame Street for once again responding to the horrible effects of structural and systemic exclusion by welcoming creatures and people (actual and puppet) with underrepresented social identities to the neighborhood. Let's hope that institutions with the life or death power to define who belongs and who does not belong will not merely respond to social bias crises but also take proactive steps to normalize the representation of the full diversity of human (and muppet) diversity.