Posner on Race, Ethnicity, and National Origin

Last Friday, the Seventh Circuit released a short but very interesting opinion in Abdullahi v. Prada in which Judge Posner discussed the concepts of race, ethnicity, and national origin. Parisma Abdullahi had worked at a Prada store, was fired, and sued for discrimination under Title VII and 42 U.S.C. § 1981, which prevents discrimination in contracts on the basis of race.

Ms. Abdullahi was born in Iran, and had not checked the "race" or "color" box on the standard complaint form supplied by the court which she used to file an amended complaint. Posner discussed briefly the overlap in what we mean by "race," "nationality," and "ethnicity," and at least hints at the tradition and socially constructed nature involved in categorizing by race. He explains that if Abdullah did mean to suggest that her race is Iranian, that would be a very loose definition of race, but that such a loose definition was exactly "the right one to impute to a race statute passed in 1866." He quoted at length from the discussion of race as something of a construct in St. Francis College v. Al-Khazraji, itself a very interesting discussion of the concept of race as evolving over time and very loose.

The opinion is short because it simply overturns the district court's determination that the plaintiff's failure to check the right boxes on her standard form required that her claim be dismissed and that post-discharge retaliation did not state a cause of action. Despite its brevity, the discussion is thoughtful and deals with a tough issue that courts rarely analyze in depth. It's a good read.

MM