Nike Fires White Manager Who Racially Profiled Black Family Over A $12 Basketball
UPDATE JULY 23:
The white California Nike store manager who accused a Black family of stealing a $12 basketball has been fired.
Attorney Stephen King, who is representing Joel Stallworth and TaMiya Dickerson, told the Santa Monica Daily Press Nike fired the manager after she was seen on video following his clients outside of the sporting goods store.
Even after the couple produced a receipt for the ball, which they had just purchased for their 18-month-old child, the store manager didn’t apologize.
Now Stallworth and Dickerson are considering legal action.
“Our only recourse is to go to court and see if Nike is willing to make a change,” King told the local newspaper.
“If not, we’ll take it to a jury trial and have our peers decide if Nike did the right thing … The ball is in their court.”
PREVIOUS JULY 22
A Black family in Santa Monica say they were racially profiled by white Nike store manager who accused them of stealing a miniature basketball.
According to KTLA, Joel Stallworth, TaMiya Dickerson, and their 19-month-old son, Samuel were at the Nike store in the Santa Monica Place shopping mall when the incident occurred.
On July 5, the family was walking around the store with no intention to buy anything until the couple noticed Samuel playing with a tiny basketball.
The couple decided to purchase the $12 basketball before exiting the store. Once they left, a white manager followed them outside and accused them of stealing the ball.
TaMiya Dickerson posted a video of the encounter to her Facebook page.
In the video, Samuel is excitedly playing with the basketball inside the Nike store before the manager confronts the family and demands they return the ball.
"This is ridiculous," Dickerson says in the video. "We purchased this basketball in the store."
Even though Dickerson repeatedly told the manager they purchased the ball, she still waved down Santa Monica police officers in the area and told them the ball was stolen.
"Emotions got high as my family and I tried to explain we paid for the ball, it's ours, we own it," Dickerson wrote in the post. "We were accosted on all sides having to stoop to her level."
Dickerson eventually produced the receipt showing they purchased the ball and they were allowed to leave. After the incident, Dickerson took the ball back to the store and asked for a refund.
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"This is what happens to us all the time," Dickerson told the officer in the video.
Nike has since responded to the incident and offered an apology to the family.
"We are taking the recent situation at our Santa Monica store very seriously, and we are currently investigating the facts. We have reached out to the family to express our deepest apologies, and we will continue to work with our teams to deliver on our expectations for consumer experiences," Nike spokesperson KeJuan Wilkins said in a statement to CBS Los Angeles.
Stallworth and Dickerson also held a press conference about the manager and their experience.
"She [the store manager] had zero evidence that I stole anything. She couldn't have evidence because I bought it. She discriminated against me," Stallworth told KTLA station in Los Angeles. "She planted an evil seed in the officer, so as soon as the officer came up to me, he said, 'Sir, give me the stolen ball.'"
