Discrimination complaint filed against California amusement park.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A go-kart track in California is at the center of a formal complaint for allegedly engaging in discriminatory practices, after telling a Sikh family and a Muslim family that they could not use the rides last summer because of their head garments.
Nasir Abdo, a resident of Sunnyvale, California, filed the complaint with the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, alleging that the Boomers Family Entertainment Center in Livermore refused to allow his daughter, Noorah, to ride the go-karts because she was wearing a traditional Muslim head covering. The park apparently said that it was loose, and that it could come off and pose a hazard while the go-kart is in motion.
A few weeks later, a Sikh family from Alameda, California, were told something similar, as the park employees allegedly told four Sikh youths that they could not ride the go-karts because of their turbans. The family has not filed a formal complaint against the park, but according to the San Jose Mercury News, is considering doing so.
The Center for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has filed two complaints, one on behalf of each family, and hopes to have Boomers’ headwear policy amended to remove the discriminatory regulations.
According to their complaint, the park’s policy says “We do not allow any headwear or neckwear on go-karts. This includes hats, caps, visors, ear muffs, head phones, bandanas, scarves, ribbons, bows, neckties, turbans, yarmulkes, hijabs, doo-wraps, wigs or head wraps of any kind.”
Michele Wischmeyer, the park’s vice-president of marketing and sales, told the local City News Service that the policy is purely to avoid any entanglements with go-kart wheels and other dangerous machinery. She said that the policy is not discriminatory, and that customers are treated the same regardless of if they’re wearing a hat or a hijab.
At a press conference in San Jose this week, CAIR did not disclose if the families plan to actually sue the Boomers, which has parks in more than ten major California cities, as well as Florida and New York.