Hawaiian Tropic Zone Accused of Discriminatory Hiring Policy

012809htz.jpg 21-year-old Melody Morales says her "dream job" of working at Hawaiian Tropic Zone was crushed by managers who refused to give her a shot because of her Latin roots. So Morales, who grew up on the Upper West Side, is following the lead of a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit against the Times Square theme restaurant, which is being sued by employees who accuse corporate brass of covering up a manager's repeated sexual abuse. Morales says her many attempts to get work at HTZ were finally shot down by managers who told her, "We will not hire you because you have a 'speech problem.' You have a Latin accent. You don't speak white. You are ghetto." Her lawyer wants $130,000 a year for every year she might have worked there, plus punitive damages. Morales, who the Post reports has been "reduced to working in a bikini bar in upstate Ossining," tells the tabloid, "I'm five-foot-six. I'm slim and slender. I got boobs. Ok? I was perfect for the job."

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Perfect, yeah. Ex cept for the ghetto thing. Even on paper, it comes through.

$130K a year for every year she MAY have worked there? Where do they come up with this stuff?

you think that puerto rico flag bikini was the deal killer?

"Melody Morales" Kind of says it all. Next...

Iz sooo unfair ju kno? I mean heres I am; my tetitas are sooo larsh and jet I is not allowed to work. No one seens to has a provlim with me assent when I do BJ, ya kno?

lol terrible.

I'd hit it if she just wore a paper bag over her head.

Congrats on filing a comment that made me laugh rather than wish your were dead, FT.

'i got boobs.'

yes, you certainly do. but 'i have boobs' would have been a better way to say that. because really, the 'gots' thing is pretty ghetto.

but those breast are real and amazing. She need to redo her makeup and hair, it comes through

Can't she have some loftier dreams than to become a waitress at HTZ?

It is all about self-esteem in the schools now.
Build the kids' self-esteem, make them feel good about themselves.

If everybody grows up with high self-esteem, who is going to dance in our strip clubs?
What's going to happen to our porno industry?
These women don't just grown on trees.
It takes lots of drunk dads missing dance recitals before you decide to blow a goat on the internet for fifty bucks.
And if that disappears, where does that leave me on a Friday night with my new high speed connection?

–Lazy B

Lazy B; i believe that the going rate for blowing a goat on the internet is $325. Thank you.

i'd hit it! (en español)

I would hit it if my girl only let me. :(

From her Myspace:

*Melody* (Official Myspace)™ ..hey guys pick up the copy of the Daily News and N.Y. Post,I'm suing Hawaiian Tropics for racial Discrimination!P.S. to my brother get well soon We luv YOU!!

Female
22 years old
FrOm HiGh ToPz To HiGh HeeLz..RoCkIn Manhattan, New York
United States

""Gravitate towards your goals and avoid negative people and situations,Trust no one & Do your own thinking independently!!.

www.myspace.com/sexybella20

She's rockin' that nude-lip-gloss-with-dark-lipliner combo. She may (or may not) be "ghetto," but that look sure qualifies as such.

And I take it she wanted to work there so she could sleep with all the guys and sue them.

I wanted to be a rocket scientist for NASA, but it turns out my BA and no grad school wasn't what they were looking for. I have since sued for possible days I could have been working there for, presumably inventing new jet turbines for our next generation of astronauts.

I really don't understand how a job that hires strictly based on the discriminatory tastes of men (and lesbians) can get sued for discrimination?

Someone from the Daily News Comment section notes that the image was photoshopped to remove some lovehandles. If you look at the Daily News Photo, you can see a poor photo edit job.

I don't think it was photoship, it looks like she is holding in her tummy in. But she has a great body and those boobs are so big and real so I give her props.

that photo is 'shopped. i can tell from some of the pixels & from having seen quite a few 'shops in my time.

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Oh boy.
I knew this was going to get a lot of comments.

That's not even a Photoshop job. Looks like she did it in MS Paint.

God bless MSPaint. Without it she might not be slim or slender.

trash

and i bet "upper west side" is more like those ghetto projects in the 100's

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She's not even Ossining-material, let alone Times Sq.

So let me get this straight -- this woman joined a sexual harassment suit alleging that they FAILED to judge her purely on her sexual appeal?

Precisely.

"I got boobs. OK?...So why ju no hirazz me too?"

No. She didn't join the sexual harassment suit, she filed a separate discrimination suit alleging that they failed to judge her on her "qualifications."

We the jury find the plaintiff to be a skank.

and we find the defense attorney to be a double skank.

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oops drop 'defense' from above comment! I am so used to disparaging defense attorneys it just happens automatically!

"I'm five-foot-six. I'm slim and slender. I got boobs. Ok? I was perfect for the job."
Your body is great, but your face looks like you wash it with a bear trap.

It's only legal to discriminate against white males. She probably has a case.

Anyway, I can see her as Grand Marshall for this year's Puerto Rican Day parade.

She makes J. Lo look like Kaherine Hepburn.

I had Rosine's voice in my head while I read this story. You're awesome.

wait.
Isn't this the club with the d-bag who is being accused of raping a woman who worked for them?
I can't be bothered to go back and look up the story.
sorry.
Also, that place is a fucking trash heap. It looks like Gray's Papaya without the class.

wait.
Isn't this the club with the d-bag who is being accused of raping a woman who worked for them?
I can't be bothered to go back and look up the story.
sorry.
Also, that place is a fucking trash heap. It looks like Gray's Papaya without the class.

Well, you wouldn't really have to look anything up. You'd actually just have to read two sentences deep into the story on this page.

Oops...I guess even that felt like too much work. You know, the actual *reading* part.

Nobody can get close to the whole Pamela Anderson stripper trash glam, specially when not being arian!
Such abuse!

Traffic down? Ad revenues down?
Post daily bikini shots, follow the lead of so many other sites gothamist!

who knew these waitresses make $130k / year!
and i worried about how much i was tipping...

Holy shit, I went to school with that chick! o_0

Damn I could've had that...

I don't get it. If she was born and raised in the US, how can she have a "Latin accent"? Besides, a fake Latin accent worked out fine for Charo. The manager's right. Customers can accept a Latin accent, but not ghettospeak.

I don't remember her having an accent... But this was eight years ago. Then again, how does one "acquire" an accent in a few years time?

LI accent might be consider ghetto accent by some.

Is it rude to insist on mouthwash first...?

What are the chances that such an obviously innocent and pure young child will EVER be able to overcome the stigma and psychological damage produced by this callous rejection?

Hopefully she'll be back on her knees in no time.

She's hot. Trashy looking. But hot.

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I'd hit it, but then again I have a predilection for trashy Latinas.

There's something to be said about ghettospeak being judged though. I'm sorry but that's just the way society at large works. You may be awesome in person and cool to hang out with, but for hiring and customer interaction, proper speech carries a premium with it.

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Oh and Also, Ossining is not upstate.

Give the girl the damn job! Hawiian Tropic: you're the pot calling the kettle black.

Sorry honey, we here at Hawiian Tropic only hire people with fake orange tans, your authentic pigmentation won't fit in around here.

...she got boobs or she is a boob!?!?!?! I don't know, but maybe something got lost in translation.Welcome to America where you can make it on your looks(or in this case,the lack of)& not on your command of the "native" language. In this case "Spanglish". We are doomed!

We've gotten to the place where "discrimination" itself is considered a bad word. It is not. The issue is "arbitrary" discrimination. I don't CARE if my heart surgeon is a woman. but I DO care if she graduated Med School.

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