CEO booted out of his office after video of him harassing black entrepreneurs in gym
A Minneapolis venture capitalist’s office lease has been snatched after viral video accusing him of racial profiling, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
Social media video shared Tuesday shows Tom Austin threatening to call the cops on a group a black business owners at the MoZaic East office building in Uptown. The men, owners of social media marketing and consulting agency Top Figure, were using the office’s shared private gym when they were accosted, video shows.
Austin’s firm, F2 Group, was housed in the same building, which is owned by The Ackerberg Group, according to the newspaper.
CEO Stuart Ackerberg said he terminated Austin’s tenancy after already being “heartbroken” by chilling video of Minneapolis police kneeling on the neck of unarmed African-American man George Floyd, Forbes reported.
Floyd ultimately died from his injuries, sparking fiery protests that have rocked Minneapolis.
“This is not how we do business,” Ackerberg said of the incident involving Austin, adding the the men had “every right ... to use that amenity,” according to the Star Tribune. “I’m alarmed by what I saw.”
In the video, Austin introduces himself before asking the men, “I’m a tenant of this building. Are you?”
Suspecting them of trespassing, Austin claims he’s “going to call 911,” but dials building management instead, according to Minnesota outlet Bring Me the News. The venture capitalist insisted the incident wasn’t racially motivated, telling the news site: “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.”
In an Instagram post, the entrepreneurs argued otherwise and accused Austin of “racial profiling” and “age discrimination.”
“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 entrepreneurs wrote of the May 25 incident.
The group was using a “shared private gym” at their WeWork co-working space inside the MoZaic East building when Austin approached and asked “if WE BELONG in this building,” according to the Instagram post.
“Granted we’ve been in this office space and have rented and grown our business for the past 1 year and half here,” it continued.
“As you guys can see, we’re dealing with racism here,” one of the businessmen says at the start of the video.
WeWork addressed the incident statement posted to Twitter on Tuesday, saying it does not “tolerate discrimination in any form.”
“We have asked the building owner, and operator of the gym where the recorded incident took place to take immediate steps to investigate and address the conduct in the video,” the company wrote.
Looking back, Austin said he regrets questioning the young men.
“Not my job to say anything or question potential trespassers,” he told the New York Post in a statement. “I was in a bad mood before I even got to the gym and handled the situation poorly. Was oblivious to the perception that my actions could be perceived as racist,”
McClatchy News reached out to The Ackerberg Group for comment and is waiting to hear back.