Healdsburg business owner receives copy of racist letter
A Healdsburg nail salon owner and her employees were the targets of a racist, anonymous letter that was mailed to the business, one of at least three in the state to receive photocopies of the hateful message targeting people of Asian descent.
Vicky Mai, the owner of Healdsburg’s All Polish Nails & Spa, said she received the letter on March 22 and promptly shared it with her staff.
The typed message was addressed to “all Asian” and contained racist stereotypes about Asians or Asian Americans. It urged them to leave the United States.
“Most of your customers feel this way,” the unsigned letter went on to say. “They just have to pretend to like you!”
The letter came less than a week after Mai, who opened the business in 2017, began seeing news coverage of the gunman who opened fire on three spas and massage parlors in Atlanta, killing eight people, six of whom were Asian or Asian American.
“It made me worried about whether I was going to open the store or shut down,” Mai said, adding that she was concerned for the safety of her employees and customers.
She ended up deciding to keep her doors open, though was unsure whether she should contact police, Mai said.
News about the letter soon circulated in Sonoma County after one of her employees’ husbands posted a photograph of the message on social media. The comments it garnered online, and those from customers who had learned about the letter, showed overwhelming support for Mai and her staff, she said.
“That made me feel a lot calmer than the first few days after I got the letter,” Mai said.
The city’s police have investigated the letter, which they found was postmarked in San Bernardino. It appears to be the same message that was sent to other nail salons in the state, Healdsburg Police Chief Kevin Burke said. News reports show nail salons in Riverside and another in the San Bernardino County city of Yucaipa also received the letter.
Healdsburg officers determined they could not classify the letter as a hate crime because it did not contain a threat to a person or piece of property, a requirement for that type of charge, Burke said.
The department will count the case as a hate incident, however, meaning it will be part of an annual report to the California Department of Justice.
Hate incidents are defined as an action or behavior that is motivated by hate but is legally protected by the First Amendment as free speech, according to the California Attorney General’s Office.
Healdsburg officers have not received additional reports of the letter being sent to other businesses in the city, Burke said.
You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nashellytweets.