Photo Credit: B Scott
Jeffrey Thornton is suing one of Encore Global’s San Diego’s locations after applying to work for the company and being told by a hiring manager that he qualified for the job but needed to cut his hair first. He is now claiming in his lawsuit the company is violating the CROWN (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair) Act, signed in 2019 that bars employers discriminating in the hiring process based on their hairstyles and describes racial discrimination as “prejudice for “traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles.”
“Professionalism isn’t about fitting into Eurocentric norms. Professionalism is about competency,” attorney Adam Kent, who represents Thornton, said at a news conference. “We all expect to be judged based on our abilities and on our character, but Mr. Thornton is being told in this case that it’s different for him.”
Kent said Thornton wants “to be made whole for the damages he has suffered,” and is also asking that Encore Global “is never again able to enforce grooming policies that disparately impact Black Americans.” And the thing is that he worked for another Encore Global location in Florida but was laid off during the pandemic so he’s done the work before. And he says his hair was never an issue before.
An Encore Global spokesperson said he “regrets any miscommunications” with Thornton “regarding our standard grooming policies — which he appears to fully meet.” The company also said it has extended an offer of employment to him. “We are continuously looking to learn and improve, and we are reviewing our grooming policies to avoid potential miscommunications in the future.”
Thornton’s lawyer isn’t fully satisfied with the response either. He says “While we are glad that Encore Global has acknowledged its error in denying my client’s employment due to his hairstyle, we have yet to receive a formal apology, or a commitment to changing the grooming policy that has had a disparate impact on African-Americans,” Kent told CNN. “I intend to engage with Encore further to determine if they will fulfill all the requests we have made in our lawsuit.”
What’s interesting about this is that I recall when discussion abotu the CROWN Act first began and how so many people were online laughing at the idea saying racism was so rare these days that people were literally making up new forms of discrimination, not realizing people have been fired from their jobs for ethnic hairstyles for decades. It’s only a recent phenomenon where locs have been accepted into the workplace. My advice? Make an example out of them. Miscommunication? Sure it was… *fake wink* We believe you. Let’s just make sure this doesn’t happen again.
I’ll add that San Diego has had its own recent bouts with racism. They’ve been in the news for having Board of Supervisors meetings with blatant recist remarks for the past year and a half with meetings cut prematurely just to stop it. So this shouldn’t be seen as anything new.
