In many ways, you're not allowed "do what you want" with your car or headphones. For example it would be illegal to work as a taxi driver and say "I don't pick up black people"
Nit: the NYC taxi rules make no mention of race in their rules. They cover in depth payment, route selection, luggage etc but nothing about race. They have a lengthy list of acceptable reasons not to accept a passenger, many of which could be used to reject outright any person hailing the cab that the driver personally did not want to carry.
Unless the racism occurred against a disabled person, it seems totally possible for a taxi driver to freely discriminate in their selection of passengers.
The rules are actually pretty strict for what can constitute legal refusal of a fare [1]. 54-20(b)(2), "The Passenger is carrying or is in possession of any article, package, case
or container which the Driver reasonably believes will cause damage to
the Vehicle" and 54-20(b)(9) "The passenger is disorderly or intoxicated" are really the only rules that have a subjective component.
...and yet, it's only four letters to spell 'race'. And its not there, anywhere. So easy to have said 'drivers will not discriminate on the basis of race, religion' or some such. And they didn't say it.
However, if the law says "You must pick up a passenger under [SMALL LIST OF EXCPETIONS]", then you basically are banned from excluding people on the basis of their race, right?
*(NB I'm not USAian, and don't know much about US taxis)
