16-year-old Chick-Fil-A worker sent home over ‘unnatural’ hair color

Of course it's a black girl

I (a middle-aged white woman) have dyed my hair black, red, blond for decades and not even one single time has anyone suggested that those aren't "natural colors" even though they were obviously not MY natural brown hair color.

sigh This kind of ignorant discrimination goes on a lot in Japan too. A small percentage of ethnically Japanese people do NOT have black hair, but it is very much a standard. Some schools make kids dye it!

As someone with 77% Mayan and native blood, I find it really fucking offensive that a Mohawk is deemed inappropriate. It's literally one of the most accepted hairstyles in my culture.

I can’t read the article from the uk. Here’s a photo of her hair at the time for anyone interested.

16-year-old Harrisburg Chick-Fil-A worker sent home over ‘unnatural’ hair color

by: Shaquira Speaks Posted: Jul 31, 2023 / 10:21 PM EDT Updated: Aug 1, 2023 / 03:08 PM EDT

HARRISBURG, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — 16-year-old Autumn Williams says she’s 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 this Chick-Fil-A in Harrisburg 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 blond 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:

(Photo: Autumn Williams)

“I don’t know what blond is in my hair because my braids were brown, and there wasn’t blond in them, and my natural hair color is blond,” 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.

(Chick-Fil-A Handbook)

She says the lack of clarification led to her quitting. Chick-Fil-A responded to our 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 idea image of what it’s like to be a Chick-Fil-A worker,” Williams said. “I could still have my braids, which I felt there was nothing wrong with, so 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?”

North Carolina does not have the C.R.O.W.N Act law in place; however, the Act doesn’t protect against hair color. Since her decision to quit, Williams says she’s filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

I have interviewed probably a thousand people, hired and managed many teams, though not retail I have to admit. I have had precisely one conversation about hair in all of that time. I was interviewing a guy who had a very large number of thick braids. I said, "the job sometimes requires wearing a hardhat. Is that a problem?" He said no, that he did it all the time, he just needed to tie them back. I should emphasize this dude had a truly impressive amount of hair so I really did doubt he could get it in a hat, but I hired him and he did.

I've also had to have conversations about long nails and body odor. It's not comfortable, but we should not be afraid of these topics ONLY if they are directly relevant to the job. I see nothing in this story where her hair interfered with the job, unless the job is pleasing bigots. Oh.

The Chick-fil-A near me has people with pink and blue hair, but they are both white, so no one's complaining.

Lame US only link

Blocked in Europe

As a frequent customer of CFA, I've quite often seen teens and young adults with various "unatural" colors in their hair. But it looks like the policy was "misinterpreted by the operator" and she was able to come back without changing her hair color.

Why is this news?