‘Indian motel owner discriminated against Blacks’

‘Indian motel owner discriminated against Blacks’

WASHINGTON, JUNE 2: An Indian motel owner in a Florida town discriminated against Black customers by placing them in inferior rooms and preventing them from using the swimming pool, Florida’s Attorney General Charlie Christ charged in a civil rights lawsuit.

The Florida Inn owned by Raj Patel had ‘‘markedly less desirable, more poorly maintained and more unattractive’’ rooms for Blacks compared to rooms reserved for White customers, Christ told a court in Tallahassee.

The suit also claimed Patel told Black customers that they could not use the pool in his motel in the town of Perry. Patel denied the charge with his lawyer Earl Johnson saying the allegations were untrue. Johnson said several of the motel’s Black guests have written letters supporting Patel.

The probe began after a family reported last summer that he told them ‘‘coloureds were not allowed in the pool’’.

If found liable, Patel could face fines up to US $10,000 for each incident of discrimination. — (PTI)

Perhaps it is not that surprising. When power comes in hand, when once the struggling immigrants get economic status, in many cases, it corrupts their views, it lets them forget their own discrimination filled past while putting other less fortunates in the whim of racism. This is shocking, but not surprising.