Lawsuit alleges bias by Getty
The case of Samantha Niemann vs. the Getty Foundation has generated all manner of headlines and Internet jabs after the white university student claimed she had been deterred from applying for an internship program geared toward underrepresented minorities. But the discrimination lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court is no laughing matter. If the case were to be decided in court, it could be precedent-setting.
“This is an unusual situation because it’s a private foundation using its money to promote diversity through internships,” says Erwin Chemerinsky, dean at UC Irvine’s School of Law, who contrasts the Niemann case with race-based suits filed against public university systems. “I don’t know of cases that have involved ... a private foundation using its own money.”
The foundation’s nuanced definition of diversity — and its program having accepted at least one white student in the past — may make it tricky for Niemann’s lawsuit to succeed.
“So long as [the Getty is] willing to consider all individuals who are underrepresented,” says Chemerinsky, “they could prevail.”
The program is devoted to providing professional experience to minorities who are underrepresented in the world of fine art.
Niemann’s complaint alleges that the Getty “harassed, discriminated, and retaliated against Plaintiff due to and substantially motivated by Plaintiff ’s race/national origin” under California Code 12940, which prohibits discrimination in professional training programs, and the Unruh Civil Rights of 1959, which prohibits racial and other discrimination in private business.
The suit goes on to state that Niemann was wellqualified for the internship because she had a 3.7 gradepoint average at Southern Utah University.
But Chemerinsky says that the Getty’s open definition of what constitutes diversity is going to put a particularly heavy onus on Niemann to prove her claims — because the internship includes, but isn’t “limited to” racial and ethnic minorities.
“It’s about underrepresented groups,” he explains. “As described, their criteria are not race-based.”
Moreover, the program has led to the hiring of at least one white intern in the past — something which may make Niemann’s case even trickier to prove. CULTURE: HIGH & LOW