Iraqi-American’s race bias claim dismissed

Where a man described himself as “Iraqi-American,” and described similarly situated employees as “non-Iraqi,” that was insufficient to support a claim for race discrimination.

Background

Maan Aljizzani alleges his former employer, Middle Eastern Broadcasting Networks Inc., or MBN, discriminated against him and terminated his employment on the basis of his race and national origin, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. MBN has filed a motion to dismiss.

Race discrimination

Defendant then argues that, because plaintiff has not alleged any facts regarding his own race or the race of any similarly situated employees, his race discrimination claim must fail. As the Fourth Circuit aptly noted, “[t]rying to draw clear distinctions between someone’s ethnicity and national origin can often amount to impossible hairsplitting.”

Nevertheless, plaintiff solely describes himself as “Iraqi-American” and similarly situated employees as “non-Iraqi,” which does not sufficiently support a race discrimination claim. As such, this court finds that plaintiff’s race discrimination claim cannot proceed beyond the motion to dismiss stage, and the court will focus on plaintiff’s remaining claim for national origin discrimination.

National origin discrimination

To state a prima facie case under the McDonnell Douglas framework, a plaintiff must allege: (1) membership in a protected class; (2) satisfactory job performance; (3) an adverse employment action and (4) different treatment from similarly situated employees (“comparators”) outside of the plaintiff’s protected class. Defendant contends that plaintiff has not sufficiently pleaded facts to satisfy the fourth element.

Plaintiff declares that his fellow, non-Iraqi investigative reporters are his comparators. Plaintiff does allege that these investigative journalists are subject to the same standard, however. His conclusory statement that “[n]either of these investigative reporters received reprimands for violating MBN’s Journalistic Code of Ethics” requires this court to speculate that the investigative reporters engaged in the same conduct as plaintiff.

Second, plaintiff alleges that the Iraqi journalists who received verbal warnings in March 2021 are comparators. This referenced group fails the McDonnell Douglas framework because as plaintiff is also Iraqi, the other Iraqi journalists are within plaintiff’s protected class.

Third, plaintiff alleges that all other non-Iraqi journalists are comparators. This comparison is also deficient. Plaintiff notes that defendant defines journalists as “those individuals who assign, write, report, edit, post, produce and broadcast news …, including radio, television and digital media.” This all-encompassing definition requires plaintiff to provide additional facts, such as “positions or job requirements,” to lift his claims beyond “bare allegations.”

Plaintiff makes a final comparator allegation, stating that Mr. Khawly, a Lebanese journalist, “frequently tweets personal political opinions without reprimand from MBN.” This comparison, taken as true, again falls short. Plaintiff makes no allegations about Mr. Khawly’s specific job position and role or whether they share the same supervisor. Further, the code does not hold all journalists to the same standard when giving personal opinions.

Thus, based on the pleaded facts, this court would be required to speculate as to whether Mr. Khawly and plaintiff are similarly situated for purposes of a comparator analysis, and this court is not required to “fill in the gaps” as to the plausible basis for believing Mr. Khawly was similarly situated or that national origin discrimination was the true basis of the alleged discriminatory behavior.

Defendant’s motion to dismiss granted.

Aljizzani v. Middle Eastern Broadcasting Networks Inc., Case No. 1:22-cv-01321, Aug. 7, 2023. EDVA at Alexandria (Alston). VLW 023-3-466. 12 pp.