McGinest v. GTE Service Corp. 360 F.3d 1103 (9th Cir. 2004) 

In this case, the plaintiff, who is African-American, sued his employer alleging, among other things, a hostile work environment based on race.  In analyzing the claim, the Ninth Circuit held, “We now state explicitly what was clear from our holding in Ellison that allegations of hostile work environment must be assessed from the perspective of a reasonable person belonging to the racial or ethnic group of the plaintiff.  In Ellison v. Brady, 924 F.2d 872 (9^th Cir. 1991), the Ninth Circuit had held that in a hostile work environment claim based on gender the work situation must be objectively hostile from the perspective of a reasonable woman.  In expressly applying this standard to a racial harassment claim, the Ninth Circuit stated, “The omnipresence of race-based attitudes and experiences in the lives of black Americans” could cause “even non-violent events to be interpreted as degrading, offensive or threatening.”