From the archives: Mistaken discrimination is still discrimination

We live in a multicultural and multiracial America. The future is here. Numbers don’t lie. In 2019, 44.7 million immigrants (foreign-born individuals) comprised 14% of the U.S. population. In 2018, 39.4 million native-born U.S. citizens had at least one immigrant parent. One in six U.S. workers is an immigrant, and 28.4 million immigrant workers comprise 17% of the U.S. labor force. These numbers are on an upward trajectory. So a case from 2015 takes on increasing import.

Cultural clash

Elie Arsham worked for the city of Baltimore. All was well until she got a new supervisor, Prakash Mistry. Mistry concluded incorrectly that Arsham was a member of an Indian ethnic group, the Parsee.

Mistry himself was of Indian descent and considered the Parsee to be of a lower caste. As a result, he apparently considered himself superior to Arsham and treated her very badly in her terms and conditions of employment.

But Arsham isn’t Parsee, isn’t even of Indian descent at all—she is ethnically Persian. So she filed a national origin discrimination claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Claim or no claim?

The city argued: Our supervisor was mistaken! He thought she was Parsee, but she was really Persian. There’s no claim for “perceived discrimination” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964! We win.

Does it? No.

First, EEOC guidance states: