Here we go again?
There’s a new video going viral right now via the Instagram account of the Minneapolis-based business Team Top Figure that alleges they were racially profiled by the white man seen below inside of the communal gym of their office building:
a group of young black entrepreneurs have owned a office building in uptown minneapolis for over a year& got racially profiled at the private gym today??♀️smh pic.twitter.com/iKmAuW5Tli
— nisa (@anisalrh) May 27, 2020
He says in the video that he’s calling 911, but there’s no mention in the Instagram caption on how the encounter ended:
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.
@teamtopfigure pic.twitter.com/vz46RUvk8C
— nisa (@anisalrh) May 27, 2020
The man in the video, Tom Austin, says the video isn’t the whole story:
Tom Austin refutes the allegations in the video: https://t.co/oqgSC1bS7U
— Tony Webster (@webster) May 27, 2020
According to Austin, several of the men “were trespassing and using a private gym that was authorized for building tenants” only:
I emailed Tom Austin to ask if he would have called the police, looked twice, or ever considered the consequences of his actions if the men were white. pic.twitter.com/ktsH51JIVP
— Chris Choi (@thischoi) May 27, 2020
Austin also says he would have done this regardless of their race:
Tom Austin updated his auto-responder with a mea culpa but doubling down. Whiteness is a trip! pic.twitter.com/jKhJPdfdsC
— Chris Choi (@thischoi) May 27, 2020
This is the same Tom Austin who tried to prevent the renaming of “Lake Calhoun” in the area:
Venture capitalist Tom Austin funded a lawsuit to stop “Lake Calhoun”—named after a prolific advocate of slavery—from being renamed Bde Maka Ska. He lives on what was last night renamed from Calhoun Parkway to Bde Maka Ska Parkway. So @freealonzo sent him some new address labels: https://t.co/whu9FdXSXC
— Tony Webster (@webster) August 22, 2019
Well, Minneapolis, you’ve had quite the week:
Minneapolis is a disaster https://t.co/l3qCWH2scE
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) May 27, 2020
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member