Schwarzer says Iowa trucking company fired him because of dreadlocks – NBC Chicago

A black man claims in a lawsuit that an Iowa trucking company fired him as a driver because he didn’t cut off his dreadlocks. This is the latest in a series of incidents across the country involving an issue activists call hair discrimination.

Drew Harvey, 26, of Crete, Illinois, accused Des Moines-based TMC Transportation of racism in the lawsuit filed last week in state court against the company and two of its employees. The company did not immediately respond to phone and email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment Monday.

Similar problems have arisen in Texas, for example, where a black high school student was suspended because of his dreadlocks. And in Kansas, the American Civil Liberties Union raised concerns that an elementary school forced an 8-year-old Native American boy to cut his hair after he grew it out for cultural reasons.

In Iowa, Harvey was hired as a flatbed truck driver in June. But a day after the training began, his instructor told him to report to human resources, where he was told that his hair posed a “safety issue” and that he had to loosen his curls or be fired, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, Harvey said his hair was “important to his culture and spirituality” and he offered to address the concerns by cutting his hair, styling it differently, wearing it in a hair wrap or purchasing another protective helmet.

But the lawsuit said the company told him the suggestions were unacceptable. After his release, he was sent home on a bus in tears, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit said the policy was inconsistently enforced and a violation of the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Harvey said that during his short time at the company, he observed several non-black male and female workers who had long hair. The lawsuit says he was even more upset when he learned online that TMC had previously fired another Black man for the same reason.

Harvey is seeking unspecified damages for lost wages and emotional distress.