Why a White Woman’s Discrimination Lawsuit Against the Getty Is No Joke and Could Set a Precedent

Lawsuit definition highlighted

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.

Boing Boing responded with a tearful emoji under the headline “White woman wants minority internship, sues Getty Foundation.” The arts website Hyperallergic illustrated its piece with an image of a crying figure taken from a 15th century painting by the Flemish master Rogier van der Weyden. (Art world smackdowns are very high brow.)

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, affecting the ways that private foundations approach issues of diversity.

“The vast majority of cases about affirmative action generally involve the government,” says Erwin Chemerinsky, dean at UC Irvine’s School of Law, referring to lawsuits over race-based admissions that white students have filed against public university systems.  “This is an unusual situation because it’s a private foundation using its money to promote diversity through internships. I don’t know of cases that have involved a situation like this, a private foundation using its own money.”  

Still, the Getty Foundation’s nuanced definition of diversity — along with the fact that its program has accepted at least one white student in the past — may make it tricky for Niemann’s lawsuit to succeed. 

The first page of the legal complaint “Samantha Niemann v. The Getty Founda Los Angeles Superior Court The first page of the legal complaint “Samantha Niemann v. The Getty Foundation,” filed at Los Angeles Superior Court late last month. The first page of the legal complaint “Samantha Niemann v. The Getty Foundation,” filed at Los Angeles Superior Court late last month. (Los Angeles Superior Court) Los Angeles Superior Court The first page of the legal complaint “Samantha Niemann v. The Getty Foundation,” filed at Los Angeles Superior Court late last month. The first page of the legal complaint “Samantha Niemann v. The Getty Foundation,” filed at Los Angeles Superior Court late last month. (Los Angeles Superior Court)

“So long as [the Getty is] willing to consider all individuals who are underrepresented,” says Chemerinsky, “they could prevail.”

Since 1993, the Getty Foundation’s Multicultural Undergraduate Internship program has funded thousands of internships at dozens of cultural organizations around Los Angeles County.

These take place at institutions large and small — from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to the Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, a community center that organizes exhibitions and art-making workshops. As part of the experience, students learn about the professional aspects of arts management: curation, the stewardship of collections, conservation, installation, publishing, education and more.

Though the Getty funds the program, it doesn’t manage all of the applications. Students apply directly to the institutions for which they would like to work. (Of 110 total interns funded by the Getty in 2016, only 17 will work at the Getty itself. All others applied directly to more than 60 participating institutions around Los Angeles County.) 

The internship is highly competitive, drawing applicants from Ivy League and Pac-12 schools, among other prestigious institutions — and, in the past, has attracted at least one former Rhodes Scholar. (Full disclosure: I met with a group of MUI participants at the Getty Center two years ago to talk about careers in arts journalism, an appearance for which I was not remunerated.)

Since its inception, the program has been devoted to providing vital professional experience to members of minority groups who remain sorely underrepresented in the world of fine art — especially in professional areas. According to a survey released by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation last year, 84% of high-level museum positions (curators, conservators, educators and leaders) are occupied by whites, and about 70% of those high-level positions are occupied by women.

In addition, the Getty Foundation has adapted the program over the years to shifting definitions of diversity. In a statement issued in response to the lawsuit, Ron Hartwig, vice president of communications at the J. Paul Getty Trust, stated: “We review and revise all of our grant categories from time to time and over the years have made a number of policy and procedural changes to the internship program.”

According to language on the Getty Foundation’s website, to apply for the internships, students must “be of a group underrepresented in museums and visual arts organizations, including, but not limited to, individuals of African American, Asian, Latino/Hispanic, Native American, or Pacific Islander descent.” 

This is an unusual situation because it’s a private foundation using its money to promote diversity through internships. — Erwin Chemerinsky, dean at UC Irvine School of Law

Niemann’s legal 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.

“I was denied an hire [sic] to an internship program because I am white and because I am not within the specified minorty [sic] groups African American, Asian, Latino, Hispanic, Native American or Pacific Islander,” states Niemann in the complaint. “I protested, and was still denied opportunities to work for The Getty Foundation. The getty [sic] failed to investigate and failed to take appropriate remedial action and failed to hire me.”

The suit goes on to state that Niemann was well-qualified for the internship since she had a 3.7 grade point 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 — since 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 hire of at least one white intern in the past — something which may make Niemann’s case even trickier to prove.

Source: www.latimes.com www.latimes.com

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