Roller rink owners: Racist response an online hoax
Post from arena’s Facebook profile told woman they ‘don’t do business with colored people’
The owners of a roller-skating rink in Santa Fe said Monday they were the victims of an online hoax that painted them as racists, unleashing a wave of accusatory and profanity-laden phone calls to their home and threats to boycott their business.
“Obviously, somebody really awful is doing this,” Bill Spencer, co-owner of Rockin’ Rollers Event Arena on Agua Fría Street, said in a brief interview Monday night. “Why would they do this to us?”
“It’s so wrong,” said a visibly upset Robbyn Garden, who called police to report the incident.
The trouble started when a Santa Fe woman who wanted to host a birthday party at the roller-skating rink posted a purported message from the business on Facebook telling her to look elsewhere because they “don’t do business with colored people.”
“My mouth went to the floor,” Michelle Padilla Jefferson, who is half-black and half-Hispanic, said in an interview with The New Mexican .“I had to double, triple look. I said, ‘Wait, are you serious? This is crazy.’ ”
The social media post by Padilla Jefferson, 30, was later shared on the Santa Fe Bulletin Board Facebook page and had been shared hundreds of times Monday evening, resulting in a fusillade of online criticism directed at the business and its owners.
Some people gave the owners the benefit of the doubt, saying the message was a fake or that a spiteful former employee had sent the racist missive to try to make the business look bad.
Padilla Jefferson, a Santa Fe native, said she had been trying to reach the business for a week to book the space for a family birthday party.
After two voicemails were not returned, she contacted the business via Facebook on Sunday. She said she had sent the business Facebook messages in years past seeking availability for birthday parties.
After receiving the response, Padilla Jefferson wrote on Facebook, “For the non-believers. That say racism doesn’t exist anymore here’s some proof for you.”
Spencer and Garden said they don’t know who is responsible. Spencer said a former employee used to have access to the business’ Facebook account, but he emphasized he didn’t want to point any fingers or cast blame.
But both Spencer and Garden categorically denied sending the message and were horrified to think that they were being accused of racism.
“I’ve been a hardened liberal and progressive since high school,” Spencer said. “Racism is not something that I do or would do, and I don’t approve of racism. There are certain political figures today that are clearly racist that I dislike very strongly for that reason.”
Garden said she was espe-
cially concerned that people were calling her home.
“You guys are a bunch of a hateful [expletive],” one caller said. “Donald Trump to you … Pretty soon you’ll be out of business. But you know what? It’s OK because they can’t take the hate from you. They can’t take the hate inside your cold heart.”
Garden was near tears Monday night listening to the phone messages and requests for interviews from news directors.
“How can this happen?” she asked. “How can this happen?”