Boys and Girls Club of Dane County (BGCDC) CEO Michael Johnson laughs it off now, getting 40 emails in two days, then seven more over the next three days, from one person, questioning his credentials, threatening to sue, accusing him of fraud. But, he says, it’s worth taking seriously because it’s just one extreme example of what happens to him and other Black and brown leaders in Madison all the time.
The first email came from Patrick Franzen of Middleton at 7:15 am on Thursday, February 19. It offered a million-dollar donation to BGCDC if Johnson would answer a series of questions, such as whether he really earned a degree from Chicago State University, what street he grew up on in Chicago, how many times he called someone a racist in 2025, and whether he’s called anyone a racist so far in 2026.
Johnson, who was on his way back to Madison from Philadelphia, didn’t see that email right away. Instead, he got a notification of a comment on a LinkedIn post he’d made about the Reverend Jesse Jackson. The comment, from Franzen, complained that his email regarding the million dollar donation offer hadn’t gotten a reply yet, and accused Johnson of inflating his credentials, among other things.
When Johnson did take a look at his inbox, he saw Franzen’s signature identified him as “Editor in Chief” of Proactive Publishing. Thinking he was a journalist, Johnson found the phone number on Proactive Publishing’s website and called Franzen.
(Proactive Publishing is Franzen’s self-publishing venture, where he publishes career advice e-books.)
Johnson said the conversation lasted about 30 seconds, and Franzen hung up after asking why Johnson didn’t list his four-month tenure as CEO of the United Way of Cincinnati on his LinkedIn profile.
(Johnson was in that job for four months in 2018, then returned to lead BGCDC. While his LinkedIn profile does not include a separate entry for that job, his description of his current job does acknowledge that brief sojourn.)
Soon, more angry emails had started to come. In the next 19 emails sent on Wednesday, Franzen alternatively called Johnson “Big Mike” and “Little Mikey,” accused him of “resume fraud,” and mocked Johnson’s description of himself on LinkedIn as “socially conscious.”
“Are all the White Kids treated with socially conscious at the B&GC, or is it all other, except the White Kids,” Franzen wrote, according to emails reviewed by Madison365. “This is more of your DEI bull shit Big Mike. You are always claiming to be a victim.”
Franzen did not respond to a request for comment.
Johnson posted that email and his response to Facebook, prompting more emails threatening to sue for defamation – despite the fact that Franzen had copied many local news outlets on some of his emails.
Johnson blocked Franzen on LinkedIn and blocked his email address. When he got back to Madison, though, he learned from his IT staff that Franzen had kept emailing – 40 times in two days. Seven more emails came over the weekend.
Franzen has no criminal record, and none of the emails contain threats of violence. Still, Johnson said BGCDC has increased security for the time being.
On Monday, Johnson learned that Franzen had been behaving similarly toward the Middleton Cross Plains Area School District leadership. A district spokesperson confirmed that both the superintendent and board members had gotten many emails of a similar nature, but declined to describe the contents specifically. They confirmed it was enough emails to warrant law enforcement intervention, and that they went to Middleton Police and requested they tell Franzen, in writing, to stop. Johnson took the same step Monday.
The emails from Franzen to Johnson have stopped, and he hasn’t posed any threat so far. Still, Johnson wanted to share the experience because this isn’t the first time it’s happened, and won’t be the last.
“I think it needs to be said. I think it’s harassment, and I think these folks need to be called out … People think they can just get away with this stuff and nobody ever does anything about it,” he said.
Usually it’s much less frequent; Johnson shared virulently racist emails from someone who, he said, emails him about once a month.
Beyond that, there are more subtle forms of critique. For example, Johnson said, someone recently criticized him for attending the birthday party of a community leader who served time in prison years ago.
“They try to tell you how to behave and how you should act,” Johnson said. But he doesn’t apologize for maintaining relationships with a wide variety of people.
As a community leader, he said, “you have to connect with different groups of people, high end people, people who are community leaders, people who are socially and economically challenged. People have high net worth. People have PhDs, GEDs. And all across the world, I learned from all those different groups, and I try to connect with all those different groups … People are very judgmental sometimes in this community, but I’m thankful for my diverse relationships.”
Johnson said from gentle-seeming criticism to overt racism, he and other Black leaders get more flak than they let on.
“I’ve just gotten so used to being beat up in this community, I just take it,” Johnson said. “It’s a bigger issue than just him, the harassment we get in this community.”
