CEO who sicced security on black men at Minnesota gym says it wasn’t about race
A Minnesota man is defending himself against racial profiling claims after he was seen threatening to call the cops on a group of black businessmen in a video that has gone viral.
Tom Austin, CEO and managing partner of the F2 Group venture capitalist firm, said he suspected the men of trespassing and bringing unauthorized guests to the private gym at the MoZaic East office building in Uptown Minneapolis, according to Newsweek.
“They got in my face in a very threatening manner and I threatened back to call [building] security,” he told the magazine. “I would have done this regardless of race. So this is bulls---.”
Still, Austin admitted he “should have handled it differently.”
I “f----d up,” he added, according to Newsweek.
Footage of their confrontation made its rounds on social media after Top Figure, a black-owned social media marketing and consulting firm based in the MoZaic East building, posted the video online Tuesday, Minnesota outlet Bring Me The News reported.
In the clip, Austin is seen accosting the men and demanding to know where their office is located. At one point, he says: “I’m a tenant in the building — are you?”
The men respond that they are, one of them shouting off-camera: “We pay rent here!”
That did little to stop Austin’s line of questioning, however. He even snaps their pictures, according to the video.
When the entrepreneurs refuse to give the information he wants, Austin threatens to dial 911.
“Go right ahead,” one of the men responds.
A second clip shows the venture capitalist on his phone telling someone on the other end that “there’s a whole bunch of people who don’t appear to be part of [inaudible],” according to the video. Speaking to Bring Me The News, Austin said he had only dialed the building’s property manager — not 911.
“I would have done this regardless of race,” he told the outlet in a statement. “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 said he apologized “for making them feel it was a race issue.” However, this isn’t the first time he’s been at the center of controversy that had racial undertones.
In 2017, the venture capitalist led an unsuccessful campaign against the renaming of a local lake honoring South Carolina slave owner John C. Calhoun, according to City Pages. The proposed name change to “Bde Maka Ska,” — a Dakota Sioux phrase meaning “White Earth Lake” — angered Austin and other homeowners who wondered “What exactly have the Dakota Indians done that is a positive contribution to all Minnesotans?,” the newspaper reported.
Recalling their own run-in with Austin, the entrepreneurs said they were sure they’d been profiled, especially since each of them had key cards to get into the building.
“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 the company’s Instagram page. “ 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.”
The incident came one day after George Floyd, an African-American man, died in the custody of Minneapolis police after chilling video showed an officer kneeling on the victim’s neck as he struggled for breath.
In a similarly viral incident, a white woman called police on an African-American man because he asked her to leash her dog at New York City’s Central Park.