Company Forced To Pay $50K To Black Worker They Fired For Wearing Her Natural Hair Instead Of A Wig

Company Forced To Pay $50K To Black Worker They Fired For Wearing Her Natural Hair Instead Of A Wig

In late October of 2018 A black woman’s employer had the audacity to fire her after she stopped wearing a wig to work and started wearing her natural curly hair.

Imani Jackson claims her employer stated that she, ‘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. During the interview and for the first month of work, she donned a wig with straight hair that took 45 minutes to put on and was uncomfortable, according to the complaint.

 

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Then she began wearing her hair in its natural state, usually in a “neat bun.” The company owner said Jackson “her hair was unacceptable” and instructed her to wear straight hair—that is, the wig.

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.

According to a consent decree entered on April 3 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, American Screening has agreed to pay Jackson $50,000 in monetary relief to settle the lawsuit, nearly two years after the claim was filed.

“Unfortunately, this form of discrimination continues to limit employment opportunities for Black workers, even today,” Burrows said. “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.