White Man Who Called Cops Over Black Men Using Shared Gym Speaks Out

*Another day, another suspected white supremacist has been put on blast for harassing Black folks minding their business. 

Tom Austin, a venture capitalist in Minneapolis, had a “Karen” moment this week when he racially profiled a group of Black men at a WeWork office space. 

In video that began circulating on Twitter on Wednesday, Austin is seen pressing the men about who they are, and why they are on the premises. When the men refuse to submit to his interrogation, Austin calls the police.

Peep the moment via the clip below.

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View this post on Instagram

 

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 post shared by Top Figure ? (@teamtopfigure) on May 26, 2020 at 8:33pm PDT

The group detailed in a post what went down during their encounter with Austin:

“As we were working out this man approached and immediately asked us who we were and if ‘WE BELONG’ in this building,” the three men’s company, Top Figure, wrote on Instagram. “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.”

Read their full post via the Instagram embed above. 

As noted by Complex, Austin previously made headlines in 2017 when he opposed the renaming of Lake Calhoun to honor the region’s Native American history.

The lake, which was named after slave owner John C. Calhoun, was ultimately renamed Bde Maka Ska. 

“American Indian activists seem to have hijacked the discussion,” Austin said at the time. “What is the heroism or accomplishment that we are recognizing in order to justify renaming the lake to Bde Maka Ska?” 

Austin has also suggested that the “white establishment” need not  “atone” for a damn thing 

Regarding this latest incident, he told Newsweek that he “f*cked up,” and should have handled the situation differently. He also rejects being called a racist. 

“They got in my face in a very threatening manner and I threatened back to call [building] security,” he added. “I would have done this regardless of race. So this is bullsh*t.”

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