Boss told Black worker to wear wig, then fired her over ‘unacceptable’ hair, feds say
When a woman stopped wearing a wig to work and started wearing her natural curly hair, her boss took issue with the change, according to court documents.
Imani Jackson’s employer complained that she previously “‘came in with beautiful hair’ but now ‘looks like she rolls out of bed,’” a federal lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says.
Jackson, who is Black, was hired as a sales associate for American Screening LLC — a drug and medical testing company in Louisiana — after an interview with the company’s owner and an HR manager, according to a complaint.
During the interview, and for her first month of work, she wore a wig with straight hair that took her 45 minutes to put on and was uncomfortable, the complaint says. Then she started wearing her hair in its natural texture, typically in a “neat bun.”
The company owner told Jackson “her hair was unacceptable and instructed her to wear straight hair — that is, the wig — instead,” according to the complaint.
Despite this, Jackson continued to come to work with natural hair, according to the EEOC.
The company owner decided to fire Jackson in late October 2018, about two months after she was hired, and replaced her with a white employee, according to the complaint, which accused American Screening of race discrimination.
Nearly two years after the suit was filed, American Screening has agreed to pay Jackson $50,000 in monetary relief to settle the case, according to a consent decree filed April 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
American Screening and attorneys representing the company didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from McClatchy News on April 8.
“Just as an employer may not ask an employee to change or conceal their skin color, an employer may not ask an employee to change their natural hair texture,” EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows said in an April 4 news release announcing the settlement.
“Unfortunately, this form of discrimination continues to limit employment opportunities for Black workers, even today,” Burrows said.
In the release, the EEOC said that Jackson’s natural hair is “considered type ‘4-A’ on the Andre Walker Hair Typing System” and “is commonly associated with people who, like the employee, are Black.”
By firing her, American Screening was accused of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects employees against discrimination based on race.
Before Jackson’s firing — and after the company owner’s initial complaints about her natural hair — an HR manager told the owner that “racial differences in hair must be respected,” according to the lawsuit.
The HR manager also informed the owner that “employers should make sure grooming standards are race-neutral, adopted for nondiscriminatory reasons and consistently applied,” the complaint says.
Following this, the owner asked whether Jackson was “going to fix her hair,” according to the complaint.
In providing a reason for firing Jackson, the owner stated “I no longer needed her services,” the complaint says.
As part of the three-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit, American Screening must establish policies to prevent discrimination based on race or “any immutable characteristic of race, including hair texture,” the EEOC said.
The company’s new policies must also protect employees who wear their natural hair or style it in a way that protects their hair or scalp from discrimination, according to the EEOC.
“No one should be terminated or treated differently because of hair texture associated with their race, under the guise of what is supposedly professional or not,” Elizabeth Owen, an EEOC senior trial attorney who led the case, said in a statement.
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