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U. Illinois Prof Claims Sesame Street Accelerates White Kids’ Racism

U. Illinois Prof Claims Sesame Street Accelerates White Kids’ Racism

“White children in the United States begin developing racial biases in early childhood that threaten the well-being of children of color and serve as the developmental roots for racial prejudices that persist into adulthood”

Conservatives think the show has become too woke. This professor says it’s not woke enough.

The College Fix reports:

Sesame Street accelerates white kids’ racism, University of Illinois professor says

Could “Doc McStuffins” and “Dora the Explorer” be turning white kids into racists?

A professor from the University of Illinois thinks so.

“White children in the United States begin developing racial biases in early childhood that threaten the well-being of children of color and serve as the developmental roots for racial prejudices that persist into adulthood,” a new Psycnet study from Professor Michael Rizzo says.

The study reviewed the TV watching patterns of white kids as young as four and asked them about their willingness to play with a hypothetical person who was white, black, Asian, or Hispanic.

“With age, children whose favorite media portrayed fewer Black characters—and especially in high-status contexts and roles—were less likely to choose to play with a Black child, held less positive attitudes toward Black children, and were more likely to attribute Black–White racial inequalities to intrinsic racial differences,” the study found.

Watching “Sesame Street” or “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” may accelerate the latent racism brewing with white children.

“By their 4th birthday, many White children in the United States have already begun developing racial biases that privilege their White peers, threaten the health and well-being of children of color, and serve as the developmental roots for racial prejudices that persist into adulthood,” the researchers allege. (Lead author Michael Rizzo cites one of his other studies to back up this claim).

The study’s authors explain why they focused on white kids, presupposing that they are already growing up in racist homes.

The paper states:

We focused on White, U.S. children because White children are the dominant and majority group in the United States and are the most likely to develop racial biases…Moreover, White children often live in racially segregated neighborhoods with parents who take color-evasive (i.e., ignoring or denying the importance of racial group membership) and power-evasive (i.e., ignoring or denying the reality of structural racism) approaches to racial socialization, leaving these children with little guidance on how to interpret the segregation and inequality they observe in the world.

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Comments

irishgladiator63 | July 29, 2026 at 1:19 pm

But I thought democrats said funding Sesame Street was vital…

The Gentle Grizzly | July 29, 2026 at 2:03 pm

“Conservatives think the show has become to woke.”

Too.

henrybowman | July 29, 2026 at 6:26 pm

It’s Not Easy Being Green
…with envy of white culture.

Don’t like it? Make your own BIPOC kids shows.
Hey, y’all have had your own cable and streaming networks for YEARS, so why haven’t you?

My first guesses were wrong. Not black, not female. Does look moslem, though.

https://psychology.illinois.edu/directory/profile/mtrizzo

Which is funny because Sesame Street was created as the first children’s show set in the inner city with a lot of blacks. THe article does not explain how the tv show causes the alleged racism.