ESPN Reporter Accuses San Francisco Store Of Racial Profiling, Owner Denies It Happened But Apologizes Anyway
ESPN NBA reporter Marc Spears took to Instagram on New Year's Eve to claim that an upscale San Francisco store, Anthem Interiors, racially-profiled him and his group of friends. The store owner and founder, Janelle Loevner, apologized for the incident, but she also strongly denied the profiling took place.
According to Spears, he and his friends -- who are "all African-American" -- felt two store employees profiled their group.
"I tried to give the lady that worked there the benefit of the doubt by asking if she knew where the nearest bathroom was," Spears wrote on Instagram. "She suggested that I go to the across the street to use their facilities. Confused I asked her why would I go to the bathroom at a police station? Her response was that it will be OK they won’t arrest you."
Spears implies that being told to go to the police station and fearing arrest were racially-motivated.
ESPN reporter Marc Spears speaks onstage during the “Game Change Game” Premiere Event in New York City. (Photo by Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for This is Dope)
San Francisco-area store refutes ESPN writer's claims of racial profiling
The store owner responded to Spears' post and said the employees tell all patrons -- regardless of skin color -- to use the bathroom at the police station. Also, she said that employees often joke -- to all patrons -- about sending people to a police station to use the bathroom with the "don't worry they won't arrest you" line.
Here's the full statement:
Hi there. I’m the owner of Anthem in Healdsburg and I am sorry to hear of your experience. I do want to let you know that we send all patrons across the street to the police station to use the bathroom! The station does not seem to mind, as we previously sent folks across the street to the grocery on the corner, but it became too much for them to handle understandably. The police station is open and welcoming, since there isn’t a public bathroom nearby. This was not directed to you personally and I have heard our associates joke to our customers about sending people there no matter the person’s skin color. It’s their shtick (which clearly they need to reconsider). I do see how it could have been misinterpreted, but I promise you that was not the intention. As a company, we have many employees of all colors, orientations and religions. We love the Bay Area for its diversity and we would have it no other way. You are always welcome and I really urge you to come in again knowing this truth about the police station conversation and look at us another way. Our staff loves Healdsburg and its entire community and every single patron that comes in for shopping small business and supporting Healdsburg in general. My sincere apologies for making you feel any other way.
Essentially, this apology reads, "I'm sorry that you felt that way, even though what you're saying happened didn't actually happen."
Spears accepts apology, but doubles-down on racism claim
"Thank you very much for the response and apology. Accept it," he said. "Thanks for the police station explanation although the words after about not getting arrested didn’t sit well. Also, another issue was being racially profiled as a whole upon entrance."
Another commenter jumped in to heap praise upon Spears, calling him "well-traveled ... well-spoken, well-written." The commenter then said that the apology wasn't good enough and that her employees should seek training to obtain "cultural competency skills."
Loevner responded to this commenter, saying that she would be honored to have Spears as a customer. But, she re-iterated that she does not believe the racial-profiling took place.
"I’ve asked Marc why he felt profiled upon entering and I am waiting to hear, but I will tell you we are old school customer service oriented and we do approach customers all the time. These days that is surprising to say the least!" she wrote.
However, she caves on the line about not worrying about "being arrested" -- which was clearly a joke. Remember, jokes are not OK in 2023 (now 2024).
"The police station being the public restroom is legitimate and we have sent people there for years, but the crack about not being arrested was 100 percent inappropriate and just plain stupid," Loevner said. "I’m dealing with that and this will never happen again."
So, Spears accepted the apology but did not elaborate on the request for why he felt profiled.
A second commenter decided to jump in to tell Loevner that she needs to personally call Spears. She replied that she didn't have his direct line. Spears skipped over this reply and posted a "heart emoji" towards the commenter who heaped praise upon him.
Instagram conversation between ESPN writer Marc Spears and Anthem Interiors founder Janelle Loevner. (Screenshot: Instagram/@marcjspears)
OutKick reached out to Spears to ask if he could elaborate on what other racial-profiling he believes he experienced. He has not responded.
Spears also "liked" and commented positively towards several posts that suggested the store employees needed "racial-sensitivity training."
Important context surrounding ESPN writer Marc Spears and his claims of racial-profiling at a San Francisco store
I was not at the store when this alleged incident occurred. All I can do is lay out the facts as I have them.
There is contextual information surrounding Spears' claims that are important to note. First, Spears specifically writes for the ESPN brand, "Andscape." That's the "black-focused" wing of the company that produced a documentary saying that "athletes are the new slaves."
The five-part series dissected everything about American sports that they deem racist. OutKick debunked many of these claims.
Essentially, the goal of "Andscape" is to find racism, whether it exists or not. From the outside looking in, it appears that Marc Spears found racism where it didn't exist.
Secondly, a San Francisco Chronicle article says that Spears also posted about the incident on Facebook. I was unable to find this post as it may be private.
However, the one social media network that Spears definitely did not post the story on was X. Why? My speculation is that he knows the "community notes" wouldn't allow him to make his allegations without at least some semblance of proof.
It's not that Spears doesn't use the platform. Quite the opposite, in fact. He is an active X user and he even called out "Awful Announcing" for using a picture of another ESPN employee, Marcus Spears, in their story about the incident.
Screenshot of a post on X by ESPN writer Marc Spears calling out Awful Announcing for confusing him with fellow ESPN employee Marcus Spears. (Screenshot X.com/@marcjspears)
Spears later deleted the post, which was a repost of a post that Awful Announcing had deleted.
However, they issued an apology.
The irony about this exchange is that "Awful Announcing" posted the most pro-Spears headline that I could find. Every outlet that covered this story wrote a headline that said something like "ESPN reporter says he experienced racial-profiling..."
"Awful Announcing" though, with no evidence, definitively claims that the store employees racially-profiled Spears.
Still, Spears takes this perfect opportunity to play the victim ("I can't win," he wrote) because they used a photo of the wrong Marc Spears. You cannot make this stuff up.
Another important note about Spears. He co-hosts a show on Hulu called "The Conversations Project." According to the Hulu website, the program is a "conversation series of funny, fearless, and far-ranging dinner parties with great Black guests."
Right, so Marc Spears hosts a show that openly excludes non-black people and claims that others are racist towards HIM.
Again, you literally cannot make this stuff up.
ESPN reporter Marc Spears accused a store of racially-profiling him, despite perfectly reasonable explanations why it didn't happen. (Photo by Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for This is Dope)
Remember that in the Instagram exchange, Spears posted a "heart emoji" towards a commenter who told the Anthem Interiors owner that her employees needed more "cultural competency skills." Yet, Spears unabashedly excludes other cultures from his endeavors.
Yes, he appears to believe that people need to better understand HIS culture. That's not a two-way street, apparently.
To recap: ESPN writer Marc Spears walked into an upscale store in the San Francisco area and claims that the employees racially-profiled him.
He offers one piece of proof: that the employees told him to use a police station bathroom across the street. Turns out, the employees direct ALL patrons to that bathroom. They also made a joke about it that they have made for years with bathroom seeking patrons of all racial backgrounds.
Despite that, Spears remains steadfast that he experienced racial-profiling and it seems no amount of evidence will ever convince him otherwise.
He made a claim about experiencing racism, posted it on social media, ignored evidence to the contrary and soaked in the victimhood.