Former LA Fitness Employee Files Discrimination Complaint After Being Told His Afro Didn’t Meet Standards – Essence

A former sales associate at an LA Fitness store in Slidell, Louisiana, filed a discrimination criticism after being informed in a text message that she was being faraway from her work schedule because her hair “does not meet the LA FITNESS STANDARDS for an afro.” In addition to calling 26-12 months-old Aireial Mack’s afro unprofessional, the text message said, “We want to look stylish. We don’t want to give away an-ger style, don’t take it the wrong way, just change it.” According to SpokesmanMack complained to the gym’s CEO, Mark Mayeux, and was fired a couple of days later. In March, Mack filed a criticism with the Louisiana Commission on Human Rights against LA Fitness. Mack claims that the text message incident wasn’t the one racist thing that happened to her at work, and that she commonly needed to cope with racism from her white coworkers. At one point, Mack claims that a coworker said, “Doesn’t she look good for a black girl? Look at her butt.” With all the evidence Mack presented to the commission, the agency found that LA Fitness violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act “because (Mack) was taken off the schedule because of her natural hair.” Mack was subsequently served with a “right to sue” declaration by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Of course, LA Fitness denies racism and stated that Mack was fired due to her excessive sick days and poor work ethic. It looks like they’ll need to prove all this in court, because that is where Mack says they’ll next see her.