Workers fired for ethnic cleansing lacked evidence to sue

Evidence

To this day Sade is convinced that the termination order came from on high, a cleansing of Arabs from New York’s fragile cathedrals of international commerce. “I got sick for one year after that,” he told me. “I couldn’t sleep at night.” He talked to a lawyer, exploring his options to sue for his job back. But the lawyer told him he didn’t have enough evidence. “My mistake was that I didn’t get it in writing. I was jahil,” he told me, using the Arabic word for “ignorant.” “I was young. I didn’t expect it.” — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 706

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces jahil, Arabic for ignorant, as Sade’s self-described mistake for not documenting workplace discrimination.
• SEED: Angle: how the burden of proving workplace discrimination falls on victims who by definition cannot expect it — the double bind of the jahil.