Rastafarian Claims Religious Discrimination

The AP reported yesterday that The Supreme Judicial Court has reversed a Superior Court judge's dismissal of Bobby T. Brown's lawsuit against a Jiffy Lube franchisee. In 2002, Jiffy Lube enacted a new grooming policy for its employees, in which Brown's dreadlocks did not fit. Brown, a follower of Rastafarianism, explained that his religion forbids him from cutting his hair. He was told, however, that he had to work below in the bay area and have no contact with customers.

The story continues:

Court Allows Rastafarian to Sue Jiffy Lube Over Grooming Policy

BOSTON — A Rastafarian man who refused to shave off his beard or cut his hair to comply with Jiffy Lube's employee grooming policy can take his religious discrimination case to trial, the state's highest court ruled Tuesday.

...

Brown filed a discrimination lawsuit in state court in 2006. A Superior Court judge agreed with the company that it had the right to control its public image and found that it would be an undue hardship on the company to grant Brown an exemption from the grooming policy.

But the SJC disagreed, saying Jiffy Lube had not proven that no other accommodation was possible for Brown without imposing an undue hardship on the company.

"Here ... because the defendant did not discuss alternatives with the plaintiff, the defendant cannot show conclusively, on this record, that a total exemption from the grooming policy was the only possible accommodation," Justice Roderick Ireland wrote for the court.

Brown's attorney, Joel Feldman, praised the ruling.

"The court found that the company did not prove it would be an undue hardship for them to give him an exemption or to otherwise accommodate him," Feldman said.

Feldman said Brown no longer works for the company, but will take the case to trial because he believes the grooming policy discriminated against him based on his religion and that he is entitled to damages for being required to work in lower bays where he had no contact with customers.

But a lawyer for F.L. Roberts said that after the grooming policy was implemented, the company continued to employ Brown and gave him merit raises.

"The policy was not aimed at an individual's religion. What the policy said was if you want to continue to have customer contact, then you must be clean-shaven and have neatly trimmed hair," she said. "Otherwise we are still going to maintain your employment ... but you can't have customer contact."

Wikipedia explains the Rastafari movement thusly:

The Rastafari movement (also known as Rastafari, Rastafarianism or simply Rasta) founded in Jamaica is a monotheistic, Brahamic, new religous movement that accepts Haile Selassie I, the former Emperor of Ethiopia, as the incarnation of God, called Jah or Jah Rastafari. Haile Selassie is also seen as part of the Holy Trinity and as the returned messiah promised in the Bible.

Other characteristics of Rastafari include the spiritual use of cannabis, rejection of western society (called "Babylon"), and various Afrocentric social and political aspirations, such as the teachings of Jamaican publicist, organizer, and black separatist Marcus Garvey (also often regarded as a prophet), whose political and cultural vision helped inspire Leonard Howell to develop the foundations of this new world view. The religion proclaims Africa as the original place where the body of the first man was found, which established independency among blacks.

Spiritual use of cannabis? I wonder if Brown would have failed Jiffy Lube's drug testing ... just wonderin'!

This reminds me of one day when I was shopping in one of those foo-foo trendy grocery stores (Wild Oats ... since succumbed to Whole Foods). My mother and I passed by the little in-store coffee bar. We were both craving a nice, strong coffee. However, when we got a look at the girl working the bar -- a young maiden with HUGE dreadlocks rolled up Princess- Leah- Cinnamon- Bun-Style on the sides of her head and compacted underneath two hair nets, I knew instantly my mother would have no part in it. (She would yell at my sister and me if we came anywhere near the kitchen with a brush or comb! Seeing this scary looking, but oh so painfully hip girl and thinking about her preparing my laté made me nauseous, too. Oh, and she was a White chick, too. White people trying to be Rastafarian make me laugh.)

I've worked a lot of retail jobs. Now as a customer, I expect sales staff to look presentable and not trigger my gag reflex! I abhor dreadlocks and body piercings, especially when food is involved. Nose rings, lip rings, eyebrow rings, dreadlocks -- whatever -- have no place around food. I would have been equally turned off by a dreadlock-wearing guy at my local Jiffy Lube. (But, at least he wouldn't have been handling my food. I probably would have been OK with it.)