A Black teenager was left stunned after being sent home from her job Chick-fil-A over her hair color. Now, she’s found another place to work.
Autumn Williams, 16, didn’t quite understand what was happening when she was pulled away from her counter position on July 13 and told by a supervisor that her hair color violated Chick-fil-A’s dress code standard.
“She said since blonde is an unnatural color to you, we’re going to have to ask you to leave and not come back until the blonde is out of your hair,” the North Carolina teen tells PEOPLE. “She said we understand that’s a long process and might not be easy, so email when you can come back.”
Autumn wasn’t sure how to respond. “This is the color of my hair,” she says. “I didn’t know what they wanted me to do.”
Perplexed, she assumed she would continue with her shift and get more clarification later. Instead, she says her supervisor told her she needed to leave immediately because she was “out of dress code.”
Autumn says that according to the employee handbook she was given, the dress code only stated that “hairstyles must be neat and professional in appearance” and that “unnatural hair colors or eccentric styles (e.g. Mohawks, shaven designs, etc.) are not permitted.”
Stunned and embarrassed, Autumn called her mom, Nina Burch, to come pick her up. When Burch arrived, she says that she couldn’t help but notice that at least one worker there wasn’t sporting his natural hair color.
“I’m looking at this Caucasian boy with bleached blonde hair and black tips and I’m sure that’s not a natural hair color,” Burch says. “So this is beginning to look a little racist to me.”
Burch says that the supervisor claimed she was only following the instructions and that somebody who worked for HR had recently seen Autumn and felt she was out of compliance. When she attempted to call the HR rep, he claimed to have already told Autumn why she wasn’t in dress code.
“The only thing he told me during orientation was that I had to keep my hair off my face, which I understood and did,” says Autumn. “He didn’t say anything about hair color.”
Burch says she explained to him that he had to give her more specifics since Autumn’s hair color was natural.
“I told him when we go home and take these braids out, when my daughter comes back, her hair is going to be this color, essentially, because this is her natural color,” Burch says. “And he kept saying refer to the handbook.”
After a discussion at home with her parents, Autumn decided to give her notice on July 14.
In the text provided to PEOPLE, Autumn wrote, “We still fail to understand why I was sent home. Blonde is a natural hair color so I am not sure who made the designation my color was unnatural to me specifically…Even when I take my braids down, my hair will still be this color as it is the hair color I was born with.”
“This situation has racist undertones and for that reason, my parents have decided I will not be returning,” she added.
She has since gained new employment.
When reached for comment, Chick-fil-A told PEOPLE that “the restaurant’s Owner/Operator reached out to Autumn and told her the policy had been misinterpreted and she was welcome to come back to work at the restaurant.”
Burch says that the owner eventually called Autumn to tell her she could come back to work, but only after he was contacted by local news station WBTV, which was reporting on the story.
“He called the day the story ran,” Burch says. “I doubt she was still on the schedule as it had been two weeks.”
Burch says they have not filed a lawsuit or retained an attorney, but they haven’t ruled out that possibility. The only legal action they have taken is filing a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Their interview will come up in October.
“I’m now not just an average 16-year-old, I’m an average 16-year-old who has experienced first-hand racism to my face,” Autumn says. “I’ve been lucky for the majority of my life not to experience that, so it’s a shocker when it happens to you.”
Discover more from Next Gen News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
If this is the picture of the girl in question, there is nothing wrong with her looks. BUT as Paul Harvey may had said…..where is the rest of the story? (yes, I am old enough to remember Paul Harvey)
If this is the whole story the manager should be fired or at the very least retrained.
I don’t think its her hair color but her hair is long and when you work with food it has to be pulled up or vivid for sanitary reasons. No one wants hair in their food or drinks
I think it is not the blonde color by itself.. They cannot admit it is because her hairstyle advertises “see how black I am.” Her racial identity “uniform” of stringy, multiple, hanging braids are also unnatural. Hair does not naturally grow in that style.. The same would be true if her skin were white. The hair style could easily tangle into equipment and or food preparations which is an “ick” factor to an observer. She has a lovely smile and her hair is more attractive than the greasy, oily, bare, scalps you see in “corn row” black hairstyles but it is still a contrived black, racial, advertisement, and statement, not a natural hairstyle.. Sanitation, safety(?) and compliance to a business standard are not racism. The racism is her demand to advertise blackness, If an Irish person dyed hair green for St., Patrick Day to advertise ethnic, Irish, pride would it be considered “natural” hairstyle?
SUE THE HELL OUT OF CHICK STUPID FELAY. TELL THEM TO SHOW PROOF OF A DRESSING CODE. PURE BULL SHIT.
Chick filA is unfair and racist, sue them