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A Black waitress in Maryland is making headlines after filing several complaints claiming that she was only allowed to serve Black patrons at a local Applebees.

27-year-old Courtney Haywood of Towson, Maryland, filed a discrimination lawsuit against the restaurant after being fired earlier this year.

Haywood, a single mother and Towson University student, says new management took over the restaurant this year and the establishment was “shot to hell.”

She tells The Towerlight,

“All of us as workers were unhappy with the direction of the staff and how things have gone awry, if you would say that. I’ve never been one to be quiet about anything. A lot of my co-workers there look to me as if I were a mom figure, because I do have a child.”

 

According to her, Black customers predominantly occupied the tables she was assigned to serve and she noticed several of her fellow employees asking that Black patrons not be sat in their sections.

“There’s a stereotype through the server community that black people don’t tip,” Haywood said. “They prefer to have white tables … You’re making the assumption every black person that comes in here is ghetto and doesn’t tip.

Haywoo’s racial discrimination complaint was filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A press conference was recently held outside of the Applebees with Haywood, the Director of the National United Youth Council Salaam Ismial and another former Applebees employee.C

Check out Haywood’s press conference below.