Complaints

Ex-Employee Accuses Hooters of Racial Discrimination

Hey — my eyes are up here.
Hey — my eyes are up here. Photo: Hooters

They’ve endured lunchtime visits from gropey elected officials and an assortment of other injustices, and now a former Hooters server is accusing the chain of racial discrimination after she was allegedly fired because of her blonde highlights, which “violated employee image standards.” Farryn Johnson’s civil-rights complaint, filed in Baltimore, where she worked, asserts that while it was fine for white servers to have highlights, a manager allegedly told her that “black women don’t have blonde in their hair, so you need to take it out.” Maryland’s Civil Rights commission is on it, and one state delegate is even taking the case beyond the breastaurant, using the complaint as grounds for introducing new legislation that would prevent any employer from requiring specific hairstyles. We know that Hooters is picky about their waitresses’ coiffures, but doesn’t the chain’s whole concept mean that no one’s looking at hairdos, anyway, because the Buffalo wings are so good? [CBS, Earlier, Related]

Ex-Employee Accuses Hooters of Racial Discrimination