NewsVine_Mariyam
Platinum Member
She's only 16 years old and she has already been impacted by the type of systemic racism that we've been describing. It's not being called the N-word, or having a cross burned on your lawn. That's overt racism and easily understood. But there are a multitude of microaggressions and subtle forms of racism that we as Black people endure throughout our lives. We don't have to go looking for it, it finds us since the damage of founding this country on the premise of white superiority is still engrained in many parts and many of the people of the U.S. today.
I remember we were discussing the issues that Black hair causes for some white racists and many of the posters here did not believe it or claimed we were exaggerating or playing the race card. You all don't see it because you don't experience it due to not being Black but it still persists.
I'm glad she filed a complaint with the EEOC. I hope they step up and do their job properly so that this young lady doesn't have to experience the second tier of racism - "justice denied".
By the way, I'm pretty sure by unnatural hair colors they were referring to the rainbow colors that celebrities such as Megan Rapino and Billie Ilish sport, pink and lime green.
MSN
I remember we were discussing the issues that Black hair causes for some white racists and many of the posters here did not believe it or claimed we were exaggerating or playing the race card. You all don't see it because you don't experience it due to not being Black but it still persists.
I'm glad she filed a complaint with the EEOC. I hope they step up and do their job properly so that this young lady doesn't have to experience the second tier of racism - "justice denied".
By the way, I'm pretty sure by unnatural hair colors they were referring to the rainbow colors that celebrities such as Megan Rapino and Billie Ilish sport, pink and lime green.
HARRISBURG, N.C. (WJZY) — Sixteen-year-old Autumn Williams is still trying to understand how the blonde hair color in her braids was deemed unnatural at her Chick-Fil-A job.
She says she felt singled out and embarrassed.
She’d only been working at a Chick-Fil-A in Harrisburg, North Carolina, for three months before she was pulled aside for an apparent uniform violation. What she was told caught her caught off guard.
“She was like, ‘Hey, one of our supervisors came by and said they noticed blonde in your hair, and he asked that you leave and come back when it’s taken out since it’s an unnatural color to you,'” Williams said.
This is the color Williams says she had at the time:
(Courtesy of Autumn Williams)© Provided by WNCN Raleigh
“I don’t know what blonde is in my hair because my braids were brown, and there wasn’t blonde in them, (even though) my natural hair color is blonde,” Williams said. “And the guy, when I had orientation, he never said anything about my hair color or it being an issue.”
She claims other coworkers also had unnatural hair colors, but she was singled out.
When she asked her human resources supervisor for clarification about unnatural hair colors, he referred Williams to the employee handbook.
But the handbook doesn’t specify what unnatural colors are.
She says the lack of clarification led to her quitting.
Chick-Fil-A responded to a request for comment, saying:
“The operator reached out to (Autumn) Williams today and had a good conversation.
In further detail, the operator explained that the policy was misinterpreted and said Williams was not terminated and she’s more than welcome to come back and work at the restaurant.”
“I was glad that I didn’t have to change myself to fit into someone else’s … image of what it’s like to be a Chick-Fil-A worker,” Williams said. “…I was just glad that I was able to just stay true to myself and move on and find somewhere else to work that’s fine with how I look.”
“It’s a protective style for us,” said her mother, Nina Burch. “There was nothing eccentric about the color that was in her hair. So I think maybe there needs to be some sensitivity training about what people can and cannot look like. But that just sounds so crazy to say because who’s to say what anybody can look like based on their race?”
Since her decision to quit, Williams says she’s filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
MSN