Banana Republic Fires Manager Involved in ‘Urban Hair’ Controversy

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Banana Republic — owned by Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) — has fired a manger who said the wrong thing to an employee he suspended.

Banana RepublicDestiny Tompkins, a 19-year-old Banana Republic employee, was suspended by her manager over having hair that was reportedly too “urban.” She was wearing box braids in her New York workplace at the Westchester Mall.

The manager thought her hair was too “urban” and “unkept” for the store’s image and refused to schedule her unless she removed her braids. Tompkins walked out and went on Facebook to call the store out.

“When I tried to explain to him that it was a protective style for my hair bc it tends to become really brittle in the cold, he recommended that I use shea butter for it instead,” she wrote. “I have never been so humiliated and degraded in my life by a white person.”

She added that her manager’s comments made her feel very uncomfortable and overwhelmed, prompting her to leave in the middle of a shift.

“Make this public bc they need to be exposed for their blatant racism and discrimination,” she added online. “There’s no reason why a white person should feel allowed to tell me that I can’t wear my hair the way that I want bc it’s too black for their store image. Banana Republic

GPS stock fell 1.6% Monday.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/10/banana-republic-gap-inc-gps/.

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