Back to School: Yanking Braids Supports Race Bias Claim.
We’ve written before about the push by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other governmental agencies to protect employees against “hair discrimination.”
The issue took a new juvenile turn in our nation’s capital recently in Newman v. Amazon.com, Inc., in which the employee claimed she was subject to race discrimination in violation of Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 because of hair pulling. In particular, the employee alleged in her federal court complaint that when she left a hotel bar after socializing with colleagues, one senior manager “yanked hard on her hair,” which was in long braids, and said “You can leave this behind.” She interpreted the offensive touching as “an unmistakable mockery of [her] hair as a Black woman.”
A federal judge concluded that pulling on an employee’s hair while it was in braids plausibly suggested racial animus when paired with a “smattering of racially charged comments by other employees,” and refused to dismiss the complaint, despite Amazon’s pleas.
There is no telling whether this claim – or the braids – will stand up in court in a trial on the merits. But one thing is certain, this manager’s idiotic act has landed Amazon in court for a while.
If you have a childlike manager like this at your workplace, consider (1) firing the manager, or (2) in a hopeful sense of redemption, publish these tips to him or her:
- No hair pulling
- No spanking
- No wedgies
- No nose picking
- No butt pats
- No purple nurples
- No touching, period.