Woman says she was denied Getty Foundation internship because she's white

LOS ANGELES — A woman is suing the Getty Foundation alleging she was denied an undergraduate inteship with the institution because she is white.

Samantha Niema filed the lawsuit Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging a violation of her civil rights, racial discrimination and harassment as well as retaliation. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

A Getty representative did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.

The suit states that in February 2015, Niema “was deterred from applying” for the foundation’s Multicultural Undergraduate Inteship program and told that only black, Asian, Latino, Native-American and Pacific Islander candidates were eligible.

A Getty Foundation representative confirmed to Niema — who is of German, Irish and Italian descent — that she was disqualified from applying because of her race and national origin, the suit states.

Niema was “well-qualified” for the inteship because she was a student at Southe Utah University with a 3.7 grade-point average, the suit states.

The Getty Foundation’s website states that the Multicultural Undergraduate Inteship program’s is aimed at encouraging “greater diversity in the professions related to museums and the visual arts.”

The program supports “substantive, full-time summer work opportunities for college undergraduates from cultural backgrounds that have traditionally been underrepresented in the arts,” the website states.