What is the prima facie test for discrimination under Title VII?

Unless plaintiff can offer direct evidence of an employer's intent to discriminate, a prima facie case requires a showing of his membership in a protected class, adverse treatment, and that this treatment was different from other employees outside the protected class who were similarly situated.⁴ Jauregui v. City of Glendale, 852 F.2d 1128, 1134 (9th Cir. 1988).

A hostile environment is one so "'severe or pervasive' as to 'alter the conditions of [the victim's] employment and create an abusive working environment.'" Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 786, 118 S.Ct. 2275, 2283 (1998). "'[M]ere utterance of an ethnic or racial epithet which engenders offensive feeling in an employee' would not sufficiently alter terms and conditions of employment to violate Title VII)." Id. at 787 (citation omitted). "[A]

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lack of racial sensitivity does not, alone, amount to actionable harassment." Id.