Zafirah Moore was trying to enjoy a beautiful day with her family at Sesame Place in Pennsylvania when a white woman told her to "go back to where you came from" and set off an expletive-laden exchange.

The situation kicked off when Moore and another family member politely asked the woman to stop cursing so loudly in front of dozens of small children.

The woman angrily told Moore, who is a Muslim and was wearing a hijab, to go back to where she came from, even though she is from West Philadelphia. She then continued to curse loudly and repeatedly put her middle finger up when Moore began to film the incident.

She then attacked Moore and tried to knock the phone out of her hands. 

“So this is what my family and I experienced today at Sesame Place! The fact that this woman thought it was okay to talk to us in this manner because of the color of our skin and my cousin’s religion was and is horrible!!!" Moore's cousin, Phylicia Smith, wrote on Facebook after the incident.

"To make matters worse the staff at this establishment had the audacity to treat us like the aggressor when in fact we are the victims. You can clearly see this woman physically and verbally attacking us in the video with no regard of the multiple children around us. As recurring annual season pass members I guarantee this will be the LAST membership we purchase. I’m disgusted.”

Security guards at Sesame Place removed the woman, and the company said she had been banned from the park permanently.

“I just want to tell her that I’m a person. I don’t look like everyone else, I don’t dress like everyone else, but I am a person," Moore told CBS3 on Wednesday.

"You can’t just go around saying anything to anybody. It was no need to say that to me.”

News outlets have declined to name the woman because she has not been charged yet, but police are looking into the situation.

“Of course I would forgive her. I’m not holding a grudge. I just want her to learn from her actions and I don’t want her to do this to anyone else,” Moore said on Wednesday. “I don’t know her. I can’t say why she did what she did, but she did what she did and she needs to realize it’s not OK.”

Representatives for Sesame Place released a statement to Yahoo apologizing for the incident and confirming that the woman had been banned from the park.

"Sesame Place only welcomes respect for others and does not tolerate this type of behavior. The guest depicted in that video was promptly removed from the park and will not be permitted to return. Creating safe and enjoyable experiences for all guests is our top priority," they wrote. 

"Our team deeply regrets that any park guest would have this experience in our park. It runs counter to everything we stand for," the statement continued. "To be clear, the guest depicted in that video was not given tickets and will not be permitted to return to the park."

The exchange went viral online, and the internet dubbed the woman "Sesame Place Sallie." People were immediately incensed that the woman was allowed to leave the park after accosting Moore and her family.

President Donald Trump has made the "go back to where you came from" chants a hallmark of his reelection campaign rallies.


He initially used the term in reference to four congresswomen of color and continues to tweet about it. 

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