Top Figure 🛩Normally we don’t speak out about encounters of racial profiling and age discrimination that we face day to day in our lives as young black entrepreneurs. Although today May 26th 2020 7:51pm we encountered a situation where a man entered the facility, a shared private gym that we utilize in our @wework @mozaic_east office located in uptown Minnesota. Granted we’ve been in this office space and have rented and grown our business for the past 1 year and half here. As we were working out this man approached and immediately asked us who we were and if “WE BELONG” in this building. Granted in order to enter the building you NEED a key card to enter EVERY part of the building which EACH of our team members individually have. We all pay rent here and this man demanded that we show him our key cards or he will call the cops on us. We are sick and tired of tolerating this type of behavior on a day to day basis and we feel that we had to bring light onto this situation.
A white man has been captured on viral video questioning a group of black entrepreneurs in a Minneapolis gym about whether they are tenants in the building — and then threatening to call 911 to report them.
The man identifies himself as Tom Austin as he records the incredulous men in the Mozaic East building on Lagoon Avenue, according to Bring Me The News.
The clip was posted on Instagram by Team Top Figure, a social media consulting company based in the building, BMTN reported
“I’m a resident in the building. Are you?” says Austin, a venture capitalist and managing partner of the F2 Intelligence Group.
When they tell him that they, too, are tenants, he asks which office.
“We have an office here and this guy came accusing us we can’t be here,” one of the black men says into the camera.
“I’m calling 911,” the man then declares.
“As you guys can see, we’re dealing with racism here,” one the men says as the white man appears to be reporting their presence to authorities.
In a mea culpa to The Post, Austin said: “Yes, I f— up.”
“Should have handled it differently. Building management had been complaining that tenants were allowing their friends to trespassing and use a private gym that was authorized only for building tenants,” he said in an email.
“I noticed that one of the tenants seemed to have brought 4 friends and I complained to them that this isn’t right and it’s unfair to the tenants who pay. One guy was letting his other 4 friends in and out of the building with his FOB. Nobody else had a FOB.
“When I said something, they got in my face in a very threatening manner and so I threatened back to building call security. I would have done this regardless of race. In fact, I told them I’d have done the same thing if they were white, or even a bunch of girls who were trespassing,” Austin added.
Tom Austin Top Figure / Instagram
He said he was surprised at the backlash because he worked out with the men for 45 minutes after he “had already apologized to them for making them feel it was a race issue.”
In their caption with the video, the men described the encounter about 8 p.m. Tuesday.
“Normally we don’t speak out about encounters of racial profiling and age discrimination that we face day to day in our lives as young black entrepreneurs,” they wrote on Instagram.
“We encountered a situation where a man entered the facility, a shared private gym that we utilize in our @wework@mozaic_east office located in uptown Minnesota. Granted we’ve been in this office space and have rented and grown our business for the past 1 year and half here,” they said.
“As we were working out this man approached and immediately asked us who we were and if ‘WE BELONG’ in this building. Granted in order to enter the building you NEED a key card to enter EVERY part of the building which EACH of our team members individually have,” they continued.
“We all pay rent here and this man demanded that we show him our key cards or he will call the cops on us. We are sick and tired of tolerating this type of behavior on a day to day basis and we feel that we had to bring light onto this situation.”
Austin also made headlines during a controversy amid the renaming of Lake Calhoun to Bde Maka Ska, leading a group of homeowners to mount an unsuccessful legal challenge against the name change, BMTN reported.
The Minneapolis clip emerged amid an explosive case in the Big Apple, where video recorded by Christian Cooper, a black bird-watcher, showed him asking a white woman, Amy Cooper, to put a leash on her dog in the Central Park Ramble, in accordance with regulations.
Amy began approaching the man and snapped, “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.”
The clip was shared on social media, sparking widespread outrage from viewers calling Amy a racist “Karen,” social media shorthand for white women who call the cops on black neighbors over harmless incidents.
“He sounds like racist kermit the frog,” one wrote.
“I think Karen works well for all genders. He’s such a Karen,” another said.
A call left with the Minneapolis police was not immediately returned.
The city’s police department has been under the spotlight after the death of George Floyd, 46, a black man who was wrestled to the ground by four Minneapolis cops on Monday after they responded to a report of an alleged forgery.
One of the officers was seen on video with his knee on Floyd’s neck while he was cuffed.
The four officers have been fired, but Floyd’s family demanded Wednesday that they be charged with murder.
