Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Minneapolis Office Building Terminates Man's Lease After He Threatens To Call Cops On Group Of Black Tenants For Using Gym

Minneapolis Office Building Terminates Man's Lease After He Threatens To Call Cops On Group Of Black Tenants For Using Gym
teamtopfigure/Instagram

The consequences were swift for yet another White man flashing his badge of privilege on a group of Black men who were doing nothing wrong.

Tom Austin, who is White, is a managing partner of the F2 Intelligence Group and was leasing an office at the Mozaic East building in Minneapolis, Minnesota's Uptown.


When he saw a group of Black men working out in the building's gym, the color of their skin signaled to him that they didn't belong.

The suspicious Austin confronted the men and asked if they were tenants in the building.

They were.

But when they refused to provide proof to satisfy some man they didn't know, Austin threatened to call the police.

One of the five men in the group filmed Austin accosting them and demanding to know who they work for. The video went viral.

A voice can be heard of one of the men identifying the situation transpiring in real time.

"As you guys can see, we're dealing with racism here."

Austin said he was going to call the police on the men but wound up reporting them to the building's property manager instead.

The men are the owners of Top Figure—a Minneapolis-based social media and branding agency—and were working out of a WeWork co-working space in the building and were therefore entitled to use the facilities. They also don't work for any company in the building—they OWN a company in the building.

Top Figure posted the unsettling interaction on their Instagram page and wrote, in part:

"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."
"We all pay rent here and this man demanded that we show him our key cards or he will call the cops on us."

The social post generated more than 20,000 likes on Twitter by Wednesday.


According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Austin said he was going to call 911 but wound up calling the building's property manager. A maintenance worker showed up, talked to the men and then left.

As a result of the viral video, Austin's venture capitalist office lease was terminated. It took until the online backlash and his company losing its lease for him to acknowledge his indiscretion.

He expressed his regrets in an email sent to the Tribune, saying:

"Should have handled it differently. Not my job to have done anything."

Austin maintained he was not a racist, of course.

He said he was only upholding the building's policy for using amenities—which is not his job—when he noticed only one of the five men had a visible key fob that is required to enter the gym—but not mandated to remain visible at all times. Austin has as yet not provided all the instances when he approached White men or women to demand to see their key fobs and to ask what company they work for.

He added—as is also usually the case when racist behavior is recorded—that the men became "aggressive" when he confronted them.

He concluded the statement by saying everything turned out to be civil.

"By the end of the night, we were on talking terms."
"I said, 'I'm sorry you thought I was being racist, but I was not. If you were a bunch of women, I would have done the same thing'."

Stuart Ackerberg, CEO of Ackerberg Group, which owns Mozaic East was disheartened after seeing the video.

"My heart hurts ... This is not how we do business. … I'm alarmed by what I saw."

Ackerberg reached out to Austin on Wednesday expressed his weariness over the former tenant's actions.

"I shared with him that I did not think it was handled well and there are other ways to go about this."
"It's unfortunate. Our goal is to create a safe and inviting experience for everybody."

Top Figure's Instagram post added:

"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 unfortunately follows two other viral videos displaying racially-motivated confrontations within a week.

The first video was of Amy Cooper—a White woman—getting into an argument and calling the police on Christian Cooper a Black bird-watcher—whose surname is of no relation to the woman—in Central Park who told her to leash her dog in an area that required for all dogs to be on a leash.

The woman was subsequently fired from her job.

The other video was of a White police officer in Minneapolis who was kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man being detained for "resisting arrest." He repeatedly said that he couldn't breathe.

Floyd was declared dead at a hospital, sparking a citywide protest on Tuesday night.

More from Trending

Screenshots of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez giving Capitol tour
@AmberJoCooperX; @aoc/BlueSky

AOC Saves The Day By Giving Bronx Middle School Group A Tour Of The Capitol Amid Shutdown

New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had people cheering after she stepped in to act as tour guide after a group of middle schoolers from the Bronx pulled up to the Capitol hours after the U.S. government officially shut down.

The federal government shut down early Wednesday after the White House and Congress failed to reach an agreement on federal spending. While Senate Democrats are in the minority, they hold enough seats to filibuster and are insisting that Republicans agree to extend federal subsidies for people insured under the Affordable Care Act.

Keep ReadingShow less
house with orange walls and red roof behind decorative fence

.

Alexander Lunyov on Unsplash

Homeowners Reveal Hidden Gems They Only Discovered After Buying Their Homes

Whenever you buy a house, you hope and pray for the best.

You never want an unexpected shock once everything is finalized.

Keep ReadingShow less
John Gillette; Pramila Jayapal
@AzRepGillette/X; Win McNamee/Getty Images

GOP Lawmaker Sparks Outrage After Calling For Dem Rep. To Be Executed For Urging People To Protest Trump

On Wednesday, September 25, an Arizona MAGA Republican state Representative publicly called for the execution of Washington Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal because she urged anyone displeased with MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's job performance to exercise their First Amendment right to free speech and to protest.

Apparently, urging citizens to make their voices heard was a step too far for Arizona state GOP Representative John Gillette, who responded to a clip edited out of a longer video by right-wing account The Patriot Oasis (TPO). A quick scan through Gillette's X account media posts will reveal his political leanings.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from ​@nicolekatelynn1's TikTok video
@nicolekatelynn1/TikTok

Liberal TikToker Mortified After Discovering That Her Therapist Is Hardcore MAGA

There used to be a time where politics did not have to come into every room or be a part of every conversation. But in a world with President Trump and MAGA, it's not as simple as being Red, Blue, or Green anymore.

Now, the sociopolitical climate is dangerous for many people and still very stress-inducing for others. It's important to surround ourselves with people who make us feel safe and seen—and unfortunately, that might mean cutting out people who have "different beliefs" than we do.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @valerieelizabet's TikTok video
@valerieelizabet/TikTok

Teacher Reveals The Hilariously Familiar Way Kids Are Getting Around School Phone Bans

No matter what's being banned, or the reasons why it's being banned, kids will always find a way to access what they want.

What's funny is that teens in 2025 are now creating hacks to communicate with each other that will feel very nostalgic to Millennials.

Keep ReadingShow less