Culture
Black meteorologist fired for responding to Facebook post about her hair; petition started
There has been a huge uproar since the firing of Rhonda Lee, a black meteorologist in Shreveport Louisiana.
There has been a huge uproar since the firing of Rhonda Lee, a Black meteorologist in Shreveport Louisiana.
Black meteorologist Rhonda Lee fired
Lee was fired by KTBS 3, an affiliate of ABC, after responding to a Facebook post disparaging her about wearing her hair natural.
A viewer of KBTS said while he liked the meteorologist, he felt her natural hair was inappropriate saying he’s not sure if she’s a cancer patient but she needs to grow her hair or wear a wig.
Rhonda Lee responded in a respectable fashion but the polite response resulted in her termination.
The station cites the Black meteorologist violated a “new policy” that was never written and Lee has never seen. A new policy in which KTBS says was discussed in a meeting where Lee was not in attendance.
Rhonda Lee said that in a meeting with her supervisors, they told her the policy she violated “isn’t written down, but was mentioned in a newsroom meeting (a meeting she did not attend) about a month-and-a-half prior.”
Lee also claims, “There isn’t anything in our employee manual talking about social media dos and don’ts.”
How ironic.
As of Thursday morning, the Change.org petition demanding that Lee be given her job back had nearly 3,000 signatures.
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