‘Is this racism, or am I trippin’?’ Ohio developer says a man questioned him at his own site, then told him ‘You ain’t dominating the industry’

Mike Jenkins, a Black developer in Ohio, posted an Instagram video of a man questioning him and a colleague at a home-building site in central Ohio. According to Atlanta Black Star, the Oct. 17 clip shows the man asking how the two Black men got there and whether they lived nearby. Jenkins was dressed in site safety gear, including a vest with the logo of his company, 3D Visionz.

Jenkins tried to ease the tension by stating, “You don’t see builders look like us out here, huh?” The man replied, “What, Black?” and added, “You ain’t dominating the industry.” Jenkins stated afterward that the remark made him angry and pointed to the low share of Black developers across the industry. He captioned the post, “Is this racism, or am I trippin’?” Jenkins stated he wanted the clip to push for greater Black representation in development and to start a conversation.

A 2023 study by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and Grove Impact estimated that 112,046 private real estate developers operate nationwide, Bisnow reported. Of those, 447 are Black and 175 are Hispanic, which comes to 0.56 percent combined.

Revenue and funding gaps shape the industry

The same study found that small Black-owned firms with under $350,000 in revenue average more than $170,000 a year. White developers of that size average about $159,000, Bisnow reported, while Hispanic developers of that size average about $178,000. The report states that new capital strategies are required for Black and Hispanic developers to reach the scale needed for large urban housing and design projects.

Howard Wial, ICIC’s senior vice president and director of research, stated that the time has come for new policy, investment and efforts by existing firms, MBE Magazine reported. The Siegel Family Endowment funded the report, which projected more than 51,000 new Black and Hispanic developers and more than $106 billion in new business revenue.

Jenkins also drew attention in 2024. His doorbell camera recorded neighbor Michelle Bishop running from his porch after she told him she did not believe he lived there, Fox News reported. She had been out with her young children when a vehicle followed them slowly, the outlet’s account states. Bishop stated she did not know what Jenkins looked like and called the encounter a misunderstanding. The footage was posted to a neighborhood Facebook group before media outlets picked it up, she told the outlet.

Black Enterprise reported that Bishop then posted what it described as an apology video, in which she called herself “the furthest thing from a racist.” Jenkins appeared on the Nightcap podcast, where he accused her of racial profiling. He stated he was proud of how he handled the moment, even though he wanted to lose control over being profiled.

Doorbell cameras have recorded other unusual doorstep encounters, as when a Texas doorbell camera caught a masked visitor eating a banana at a family’s front door.