Elle Duncan on D&K details racism she faced in Boston, responds to those who doubt her

Former NESN and current ESPN host Elle Duncan joined Dale and Keefe on Tuesday and detailed her experiences dealing with racism during her two years in Boston. (Listen to the full interview here.)

Duncan worked for NESN from early 2014 to early 2016 and revealed on Twitter last week that she chose to leave Boston when her contract expired before even having another job lined up "because of the hate and racism we faced living in that city."

I always dreamed of hosting a sports show. And did that @NESN in BOS. And then chose unemployment over staying there because of the hate and racism we faced living in that city. The network was a safe haven and I met lifelong friends there— but it ended outside of that building

On Dale and Keefe, Duncan detailed some of that racism.

"It was a lot, I'm not going to lie," Duncan said. "...We certainly got the warning from friends that had lived there before, that had gone to Harvard or gone to MIT, friends that had been transferred there for work for whatever reason, and same thing, had sort of seen their spouses not be able to take that and then moved early to get away from it. But I'm not one to characterize an entire city based on the experiences of others. Truth is, I know black people who are from Boston who I asked while I lived there what their experience was and they'd be like, 'I understand the reputation but I haven't personally experienced it.'

"...But it really honestly started right away. About a week after we moved there I had to get snow tires on my convertible because for some stupid reason I thought a convertible was a good car to have there. So we went to go get the tires put on at a place in Watertown, it was going to take a couple hours, so we Yelped a place that had good food, we were going to have a drink and hang out and get some food. Anybody that has experienced sort of that experience when you walk into a room and every single person looks at you and you can tell they were just talking about you, this was sort of like that but with complete and utter shock.

"It wasn't entirely packed, but there was a good amount of people at this restaurant and they were all staring at us. We go to sit at the bar and the bartender couldn't have been less helpful. She acted like she couldn't muster up a couple of menus. She immediately as soon as we ordered a drink, she brought us our check. It was just a very overall unwelcome situation. The restaurant had gotten incredibly quiet despite the fact that everyone had been talking when we walked in. So we had our drinks and then left, and I vividly remember looking back as we were walking out and everyone in the restaurant was staring at us as we walked out."

.@ElleDuncanESPN joined us today and discussed her experiences with racism in Boston, which included a message for people who are skeptical of experiences like her's, Adam Jones', and Torii Hunter's:"How can we all be lying?..."Full interview here:https://t.co/l6cZBjZU8U pic.twitter.com/Tq9M2CJ4Us

Duncan said it got progressively worse from there.

"Sometimes it would be microaggressions, like going to a restaurant and them kind of refusing to sit you by the window even though the restaurant is empty, and you feel like maybe they don't want people to know there's black people in the restaurant, which is something that happened to us in Waltham. Or it would be little things like people getting up when you sit next to them on the train, the T, or on the bus.

"One of my personal favorites was we went for some drinks to this little spot in Watertown with some colleagues for a drink after a show. It's my colleagues, who are all white, me and my husband. He was my fiance then. And the first thing, this dude walks up to us and asks my husband, 'You from Dorchester?' And my husband's like, "What? No, I'm from Atlanta.' 'Oh you look like someone that's from Dorchester.' We all know what that means. Dorchester is obviously a densely populated African American community in Boston. And from there you could tell he was trying to agitate my husband, trying to mess with him. We just ended up leaving because it was turning into this situation, and as we were leaving he calls me the 'b' word.

"Some were microagressions and some were just straight-up aggressions. When we lived in Waltham, one of my favorite restaurants wast Bison County. One night we got takeout and as soon as my husband got back, he was just shaking his head. He said as soon as he walked in the door, there were these two dudes standing at the door -- they didn't work there; Bison County couldn't have been nicer to us -- and they were like, 'You're in the wrong place.' And he's like, 'No the hell I'm not.'

"After the World Cup, my husband and our friend Dan were walking down the street, they were watching Ghana in the World Cup in 2014, and a van full of dudes pulled up and started barking at my husband and did the 'Heil Hitler' sign, which isn't a microagression. That's just a straight-up aggression. I remember my coworker at the time, Sarah Davis, white, also still one of my best friends, we had one of our many encounters where people were just being incredibly rude to us and she kind of looked at me and was like, 'Why is it that every time I'm with you, there's a problem?' And I just sort of looked at her and smirked, and she goes, 'Oh, wow.'"

Duncan also addressed those who have questioned her experiences or demanded proof or accused her of lying about why she decided to leave Boston. Duncan did land her current job at ESPN before leaving NESN, but she says she had decided to leave Boston even before landing an audition with ESPN and was gone whether she had another job lined up or not.

Duncan's story was recently confirmed by the Boston Globe's Chad Finn, and Duncan added on Dale and Keefe that she had even already moved a bunch of her stuff back to Atlanta, where she and her husband were planning to move back to, before she had heard anything from ESPN.

To anyone questioning the timing of Elle Duncan's departure from NESN four years ago, you shouldn't be. Here's how it went down. pic.twitter.com/Wi8a0yTMaR

"Obviously all 600,000 people in Boston are not racist," Duncan said. "What I would say to the people who are always skeptical, who always get very defensive about their city, I get it. No one wants to be accused of being a city filled with racists. I fully understand that, but what I would say to you is, how can we all be lying? How can Adam Jones and Mike Wilbon and me and Torii Hunter and the countless other African Americans who have said they've experienced this issue in Boston, how can we all be wrong? Why would we lie about that? I certainly wouldn't lie and welcome what my mentions have looked like over the last couple days. All of us have just happened to come across the same handful of racists? Come on, guys. Does that seem more plausible than the fact that maybe there's an issue there? Maybe it's not the most welcoming place?

"While there's so many incredible and amazing people that live in Boston, there's enough that give it this reputation. Start doing some introspecting and say, 'What can we do to start changing this idea that Boston is not welcoming for brown people?' It is an incredible city. It's beautiful. You all know this. There's so much opportunity there for people in sports, for people in the medical field. My husband's an engineer and it was an amazing place for him to put down roots and grow as an engineer. I don't want to have to tell my story to people who ask. I want to be able to give glowing reports about Boston and say, '100 percent go for it.' But instead I do, I say, 'Understand this could happen. In a perfect world it will not, but just know in my experience this is what I went through.'

"I speak for myself. We're not a monolith. I don't speak for all black people. There are more non-racists in Boston than there are racists. I think it's time to start calling out the ones that are and saying, 'Enough.' Stop personally attacking these people who are trying to share their stories. Stop making it about my past instead of what I'm actually saying. Start learning. Start listening without being prepared to respond and being prepared to sort of fall on the sword for Boston. Geographical lines don't matter more than people's feelings and anxieties and issues and hurt. It was painful. I don't like reliving this. It was a terrible time for me and my husband honestly. It sucked. I don't want to have to be on here and defending myself to people. But I think we've moved into a time in this country where people more than ever are listening."