‘I’m gonna look like a racist’: Woman has to get license plate customized after state-issued one is offensive
This woman was appalled after getting a license plate that seemingly had a racial slur. On top of that, commenters are being gleefully racist.
Unless you choose to get a custom license plate (which usually costs extra), you're going to end up with a randomized auto-generated one.
While there are systems in place to prevent inappropriate words from getting on the plates, some slip through the system.
That's what happened to this Arizona driver.
Racist license plate
Video aggregator @memesnstff posted a video that went viral of a woman who received a concerning license plate.
"NGA 9ER," the plate read.
In case you're not catching on, the plate can be interpreted as being the N-word with a hard "ER."
"IM GONNA LOOK LIKE A RACIST NOOOO," the driver says in the video.
The Arizona driver clarifies that this was a randomly generated license plate; she did not customize it to read that. But after this, she says she is going to get a custom plate to avoid any more issues.
"I am not driving around with this. This looks so bad," she adds.
@memesnstff #fyp #foryou #foryoupage ♬ original sound - MemesNStuff
Can she get it fixed?
In Arizona, if your license plate is damaged, deteriorated, or unreadable, you can request a replacement. That replacement will contain the same series of numbers and letters. If it's been lost or stolen, the license plate will be replaced with a new set of numbers and letters. That's according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.
Replacing your license plate will cost you $5, plus shipping costs. The entire transaction can be done via mail. All you have to do it submit the printed and filled-out plate application with a money order.
FOX10 Phoenix reported that ADOT provided it with "700 pages of double-sided, single-spaced personalized requests" that ADOT rejected. Most of the rejections contained profanities, swears, and drug-related words.
Most of these words are automatically rejected. But some (like the one in the TikTok and another spelling out "Biden Sucks") still seep through the system.
Doug Nick, an ADOT spokesperson, spoke with the news station about it.
"Those are some things that a computer isn’t necessarily going to know," Nick said.
Has this happened before?
Just a few years ago, a crude and offensive auto-generated licensed plate made it to a resident. The plate's numbers and letters resembled the word "swastika."
S-W-A-6-A-K-A, the plate read.
"We took a look at that and realized that auto-generated plate and the interpretation was not something necessarily a computer would recognize," Nick said.
If a person is offended by the plate they're given, they can reach out to the Motor Vehicle Department for a replacement, FOX10 Phoenix reported.
Disturbing commenter reactions
Some of the comments under the post were concerning given that several non-Black people said they wanted the licensed plate—effectively saying they would like to walk around advertising an anti-Black slur.
"Name your price," one person wrote.
"Change ga with ig and it’s worth a million dollars to me," another said, making the licenses plate even worse.
"GIVE IT TO MEEEEE PLS," a commenter wrote.
"I'd say that's one of the best license plates you can get," another added.
The Daily Dot reached out to @memesnstff via TikTok direct message and comment to get the name of the original content creator and to ADOT via email.
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