Hooters is being sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for allegedly discriminating against its former Black employees and workers with darker complexions. According to a lawsuit filed Thursday, a Hooters restaurant in Greensboro, North Carolina, laid off 43 employees in March 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic before recalling 13 of them two months later—with all but one of those women having light skin. The lawsuit goes on to say that prior to layoffs, 51 percent of the Hooters servers were Black or had dark skin, a number that plummeted to 8 percent after May 2020. The lawsuit also states that even before they were laid off, employees of color “were subjected to discriminatory comments from [Hooters’] managers, including but not limited to expressions of preference for White and light skin-toned servers, suggestions that light skin-toned servers were more presentable, and jokes about the appearance and hairstyles of Black and dark skin-toned servers.”