Drew Harvey, 26, of Crete, Illinois, was a recent hire at an Iowa trucking company, and he alleges that he was fired for refusing to cut off his dreadlocks.
According to the Des Moines Register , Harvey traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, for his new role with TMC Transportation. He began training on June 23, but he alleges that he was wrongfully terminated the following day due to his hairstyle.
“I was one of the top performers … I was thinking my instructor might be giving me a little bit of praise for doing a good job,” Harvey told the newspaper outlet. “I was getting ready to walk into the classroom and he stopped me and said, ‘You need to go talk to HR before stepping into the classroom.'”
Harvey spoke with the vice president of HR about the issue, and Harvey claims he was given one option: to cut off his hair or lose his job. He said he suggested various alternatives after the company allegedly expressed concern that his hair would prevent him from wearing the required hard hat properly.
“I’ve seen multiple people of my skin color and my different hair types conduct their job more than efficiently with a hard hat,” Harvey said, emphasizing that his suggested way of wrapping his locs made the hat feel more secure.
Harvey said that his hair held both cultural and emotional significance to him.
“Being an African American, and just understanding where my people are from, our hair is very deeply tied to our spirituality as well as our moral beliefs,” he explained. “I have not cut my hair since the day my father passed away four years ago. … My dad would braid it up for me.”
The 26-year-old filed a civil rights complaint against the company for discrimination and hired Ben Lynch, a civil rights attorney in Clive, the night after his termination from TMC, according to the Des Moines Register.
TMC has faced allegations of racial discrimination in the past, according to reports from former employees. KCCI reported that in 2021, Damon Mitchell was employed by the company to obtain his commercial driving license when he was allegedly terminated due to his dreadlocks.
“I didn’t fail out of school, I didn’t do anything wrong. I was high spirits, I had high hopes and I went there ready to give this company everything that I had, with the best of my ability. And my hair did not have an influence on my job performance,” Mitchell told KCCI.
Mitchell had relocated from Texas to obtain his CDL license and claimed he received similar complaints to Harvey’s, including issues with his hard hat fitting due to his hair. He said he refused to cut his dreadlocks and was allegedly terminated for that. According to Atlanta Black Star , he filed a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and signed a non-disparagement agreement with TMC, which prohibits him and his attorney from discussing the case.
Meanwhile, Harvey included several photos in his complaint showing white employees with long hair who allegedly retained their positions. Lynch commented that such treatment of African American workers should not be occurring in today’s workplaces.
“I don’t know why this is happening in 2024,” Lynch said, per the DesMoines Register. “Drew (Harvey) is the nicest guy in the world. He should be exactly who you want at your company.”
Harvey said he hopes Black people will not continue to be the targets of these types of outdated practices.
“I don’t want this to continuously be a problem for people of my skin color and ethnicity,” he said. “We should not be subjected to these types of discriminatory claims.”
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