My Life as a Furry Red Monster - Kevin Clash [33]
In one incredibly moving segment, Kami brings out her “memory box” to show everyone. In parts of Africa where AIDS is rampant (the UN estimates that AIDS has orphaned more than 13 million children in sub-Saharan Africa), the practice of creating a memory box, where people can preserve items that remind them of a loved one who is dying or has died of the disease, is increasingly common. Experts on grieving advocate this practice as emotionally healthy and necessary, particularly among young children who are losing one or both parents to AIDS.
Inside the box, Kami has her mother’s passport, a scarf her mother wore that carries her lingering scent, and photographs of the two of them together. She shares her memories of her mother, an important part of dealing with loss. In a really heartfelt and funny Sesame Street touch, one of the other characters, Zekewe, decides to create his own memory box, which he shares with Kami.
Zekewe is an older character who once drove a taxi that now sits on the set on cinder blocks in complete disrepair. His memory box is filled with parts of the car that once worked, and he has fond and funny memories of each. In a way Jim Henson would have appreciated, the humor in the piece helped to balance the sadness of Kami’s loss and created a sensitive and educational show about a very difficult issue.
Despite the company’s initial hesitation and uncertainty about presenting children with issues like AIDS and the death of a parent, they had to let go of their preconception of what was right for the kids of South Africa and acknowledge the very real differences between our cultures.
Though the issues faced by American and South African children seem worlds apart, our goal was the same: to teach tolerance. Unfortunately, some very narrow-minded Americans who had never seen the episodes tried to prevent us from teaching that lesson. Although the Takalani Sesame episodes were produced and intended solely for use in South Africa, when a conservative U.S. organization heard that a Sesame Street production was using a character with AIDS and dealing with that subject matter, its members raised a stink. Why? Because we receive government funding, as does PBS, and we were raising the hot-button issue of HIV/AIDS. In their eyes, we were somehow pushing the “gay agenda,” which they saw as an objectionable bias. (The PBS program Postcards from Buster came under similar fire when it featured some children being raised by same-sex parents.) When I returned from South Africa, even the security people at the airport commented on the inappropriateness of an HIV/AIDS plotline on a children’s television show; they just didn’t get it.
To me, these objections were sad and outrageously disrespectful, and like many prejudicial attitudes, were born out of intolerance and ignorance. HIV/AIDS doesn’t discriminate based on sexual preference. In Africa, it has destroyed the lives of countless heterosexual married couples and their families.
I don’t know how anyone who saw Kami and her memory box could have raised a single objection to the show’s content or the South African production company’s handling of the material. Although we have come so far in learning and teaching tolerance, we still have a long way to go. I salute Takalani Sesame for their courage in taking on the subject and for their sensitive and inspiring handling of the issue. I’m glad that we at the Sesame Workshop could help to make it happen.
“ELMO LOVES HIS red fur,” Elmo tells Whoopi Goldberg in a sketch they did together. They are sitting close together on a bench, and Elmo is comparing his appearance to Whoopi’s.
“I love my brown skin,” Whoopi replies. She touches his red fur and tickles him, and Elmo touches her dreads.
Like many children, Elmo is curious about the differences between himself and the new people he meets. When Whoopi Goldberg visited Sesame Street, it was a perfect opportunity for Elmo to investigate the miraculous variety of skin color (or fur color, as the case