A Sikh family in California is contemplating a lawsuit against an amusement centre after it stopped them from using a go-kart track because of their turbans.
The Singh family of Alameda county in the San Francisco Bay Area has alleged that staff at Boomer's, the amusement centre at Livermore city, stopped four of them from using the track on July 28, local media reported today.
Arminder Singh, 26, Gurpreet Singh, 16, Diljit Singh, 15, and Jaskirat Singh, 11, waited in line for several minutes and when it was their turn, a Boomer's employee told them that their turbans were not allowed on the track.
However, Palace Entertainment, the company that owns Boomer's, said that they were stopped due to safety concerns and nothing more, the Contra Costa Times reported.
"It has nothing to do with a discrimination policy and everything to do with a safety policy. We've had a safety policy in place for quite some time at all our parks that prohibits hats, baseball caps, yarmulkes," said Michele Wischmeyer, vice-president of marketing at Palace Entertainment.
However, Manmeet Singh, the family's attorney, said Boomer's employees used "subtle racial slurs" while arguing with the family.
He has started an online petition on the website of United Sikhs, an international advocacy group, in which he has posted a photograph of the four who allegedly discriminated against Sikhs.
