Farryn Johnson just wanted to do something different with her hair, so she put in blonde highlights.
Unfortunately, she says her manager disagreed with her decision and fired her over the change.
Johnson, who worked as a waitress at Hooters, came in to work the next day sporting her new hair style, and it apparently made management mad.
“The manager at the time literally said, ‘You can’t have blonde because black people don’t have blonde hair,'” Johnson recalled.
Watch a full report on Johnson’s $250,000 settlement from Hooters below:
Johnson pointed out that waitresses of other races were allowed to change their hair color, with other girls wearing hair styles “ranging from bright fire engine red to black with blonde streaks, so I was kind of confused on why my hair was an issue.”
She began to receive written warnings and was taken off of shifts before she was fired.
But Johnson fought back against Hooters, and this week, she won her lawsuit after an arbitrator declared her termination illegal.
The suit found Hooters guilty of discrimination and awarded Johnson $250,00 for legal fees and loss of wages.
“I hope that Hooters sees this as an opportunity to make improvements in the way they train their managers and the way they deal with their employees,” said Andrew Levy, Johnson’s attorney.