A prominent ESPN sports journalist said in posts on Instagram and Facebook that he was racially profiled by a Healdsburg business, prompting the company founder to apologize.
Marc Spears, ESPN writer and co-host of the Hulu series “The Conversations Project,” said he was tracked by store employees and subjected to a racist comment while shopping at Anthem Interiors, a home furnishings store with multiple Bay Area locations.
After Spears posted about the experience on social media, the founder reached out to him privately to apologize.
“I’m deeply sorry that was his experience,” said Anthem Interiors founder Janelle Loevner, adding she was shocked to learn about the incident.
“I felt the apology was sincere,” Spears said, adding that he accepted the apology.
“I worked really long and hard to build a solid business. I care deeply about the community, my employees, about all of it — so for this to happen it’s just devastating,” Loevner said.
Spears and a group of five friends visited Anthem Interiors near Healdsburg Plaza between a wine tasting and dinner Saturday evening.
He said it felt like the clerks were watching their all-Black group from the moment they entered the store on Center Street.
“I walked in, and I could just feel it,” Spears said. “The store clerks basically stared at us, kind of frowning.
“Anybody that’s been racially profiled knows it when it’s happening,” he said. “You just kind of feel like somebody’s peeking at you, watching what you’re doing as if they expect you to rob them.”
Spears, 51, said he has experienced this type of encounter numerous times, starting when he was a child. Typically, he said he goes into “defense mode” where he will buy something in the store just to prove he can afford it. This time, though, he stopped himself from doing that.
When Spears asked to use the restroom, one of the clerks told him to go to the police station across the street, he said.
“I kind of looked at them like why would I use the bathroom in the police station,” Spears said.
Spears added that the clerk then told him the police would not arrest him. Spears, who said he felt insulted by the remark, left the store without responding.
A member of Spears’ group, Gregory Lee, said he found the remark reprehensible. Lee said the comment assumed that a Black person walking into a police station would worry about being arrested.
Loevner said she didn’t believe the comment had racist intentions and and that he was meant as a joke, though she said it was “clearly offensive.”
“It’s just a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances. I don’t think it was a racist one, but I’m not in Marc’s shoes — I didn’t grow up as a Black man in America,” she said.
Loevner also said the police station has the closest public restroom, and that is where all customers are told to go.
“I don’t think I have any racist employees because if I did they would be the first ones exiting the company — there’s no way I would tolerate that,” she said.
Loevner said she is reconsidering advising people to use the police restroom.
The interaction didn’t sit well with Spears later as he drove back to his hotel.
“I just started thinking more and more about it, and it really disturbed me,” he said.
Spears, an East Bay resident, said that while he doesn’t get profiled in the Bay Area often, he’s experienced it sporadically all over the country. He felt that if posting about the experience on social media could prevent it happening to someone else, it was worth it.
Spears said he is glad he got an apology and respects the effort given to it.
He said dwelling on the experience is not healthy and that he plans to move past it.
“I hope it’s better for the next person that comes,” Spears said.