Whataburger — a Texas Staple — Accused of Whites-Only Hiring in Florida

Source: star-telegram.com

A former manager for an out-of-state Whataburger restaurant believes she was forced to quit because she wouldn’t follow through with directions from higher-ups to only hire white workers. Now the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has jumped into the case, filing a lawsuit in Tallahassee against the Texas fast food chain. The EEOC says the company violated federal law by requiring an employee to follow racially discriminatory hiring practices. Vanessa Burrous, a white woman and former manager at a Florida Whataburger, said she was told in 2015 to hire white employees because the company wanted “faces behind the counter to match the customer base.” After being told to sift through job applications and only interview those with “names that sounded white,” she went on to hire eight new workers — one white and seven black, according to an EEOC statement.