Kansas stops issuing license plates with offensive term for Japanese

if it's a person's initials, then what's the problem? this is PC culture gone too far. people need to grow thicker skins or learn to ignore the small stuff that doesn't really affect them.

nakanoguy01Today 04:08 pm JSTif it's a person's initials, then what's the problem?

what if "George Oscar Oliver King" also wants a vanity plate made up of his initials?

if it's a person's initials, then what's the problem? this is PC culture gone too far. 

Exactly. Personally when I see/hear 'j.a.p' in the us or oz I think Jewish American/ Australian princess.

"...a Japanese American man sued a couple who refused to change their vanity license plate that contained the wife's initials,"

He should have also sued her parents for thinking up the name.

It's getting ridiculous!

Exactly. Personally when I see/hear 'j.a.p' in the us or oz I think Jewish American/ Australian princess.

Oh yeah, which is perfectly fine.

What if my name was Nicholas Ian Greene, or Fred Alvin Goodwin... you get the point.

it looks to me that Americans still despise the Japanese even though WW2 ended in 1945.

Yes, but what are they going to do when Nicholas I Pierce wants a vanity plate?

PC America, both scary and utterly hilarious. I can see the meme factory kick into high gear on this one.

What if the car belongs to Detective Chief Inspector James Japp?

I wonder if it's just japanese americans who are offended by that term or if mainlaners are as well

So much for freedom of speech. If you don't like it, look away.

John Allen Peterson won't be happy. Using initials with a number is fairly common for license plates.

Is NIP also banned ?

You can be pretty certain Japan wouldn't ban something racist if a foreign person complained about it.

Exactly. Personally when I see/hear 'j.a.p' in the us or oz I think Jewish American/ Australian princess.

Oh yeah, which is perfectly fine.

Hehe, i knew i'd be copping some flak (and downvotes lol) for this comment, fair enough. Tend to think that ppl 'choose' to be easily offended. Why, i dunno. Must be tiring/depressing to always feel hurt/outraged/saddened etc by other ppl's words.

Look, if personalized license plate acronyms offend people they should not be used. It’s that simple. If your name is Alvin Stephan Smith the initials should not be on a license plate. Nor should obvious names that have an offensive connotation. Fredrick Calvin Knowles for example.

Political correctness? That is a slur against the word “decency.”

So I said it's getting ridiculous that butt hurt liberals complain about initials and get thumbed down?! As others said, seeing derogatory things in someone's initials and refusing to believe it could be anything else, shows a narrow mindedness only a liberal could have. It's pathetic.

"There is still much work to be done in eradicating the use of slurs from our language,"

Yeah, I can see the English dictionary of 2050 now... 3 whole pages of approved 5 letter words with no constructive potential.

What a shame. The original Americans fought for freedom. The ones born to that freedom just want to give it back no matter what.

The comments in this thread have me swayed. Racial slurs on license plates should be allowed.

if it's a person's initials, then what's the problem? 

I am not sure that this is always obvious. If my name were Clare Ursula Morgan, I would think twice about putting my initials on my numberplate.

I might even change my name.

J-A-P is clearly an offensive term (in fact I had trouble even allowing JT to accept the post) - one meant as a term of abuse. No need to put it on numberplates.

I am not sure that this is always obvious. If my name were Clare Ursula Morgan, I would think twice about putting my initials on my numberplate.

Well of course, that's because you didn't proudly graduate Magna Cum Laude. Not everyone spends their day searching for derogatory plates. The JACL has obviously already resolved allllllll the other important Asian minority issues in the US and has nothing else left to do.

And dont get me start that J in JACL is for Japanese and not Asian citizens. If your only in it to help Japanese American Persons (...see what I did there?) then your no different than the problem your complaining about.

But seriously though... are we really trying to shut down "word plays"? You have a better chance of tripping over a million bucks.

You can't even let teenagers get a hold of the words "to" and "it's". They're gonna generate some completely unrelated context like "toits" and then say some rediculiosness like that's when an Asian treefrog mates with and African bever and start using that to describe someone with with "Dark Asian Fever". Trust me, I here crazy stuff like this every day. You simply can't win this. The best you can do is stop making a big deal about it, and then people won't treat it as such.

This is dumb anyway. The people that really want it are gonna start using iAP on their plates anyway. What's Kansas really gonna do? Change to glyphs?

What do they call someone from Finland, or someone from Turkey? Some Japanese can be overly sensitive whilst maintaining quite a few racial prejudices of their own...

Tend to think that ppl 'choose' to be easily offended

I’m starting to think it’s becoming a hobby for some.

Maybe as a consequence the US should ban the references "Yankee" and "Dixie" ? As both could be construed as being Racially prejudiced... wow, that court ruling is really getting into a sensitive area with wide reaching ramifications. Sporting teams will have to drop certain words for example...

This is not a personalized plate. 731 licenses were issued. I cannot speak for Kansas, but the Michigan Secretary of State omits letter combinations forming troublesome acronyms. Furthermore, the state reserves the right to refuse any personalized plate request. I would guess that Kansas already has similar policies, keeping a banned use list.

Ask yourself: Would you accept a state issued license plate with 'KKK' on it? Try to image level of discomfort.

Ok, I'm back! Been about an hour since my last comment, did I miss anything?

Are J, A and P still allowed in the alphabet?

Man... I hope they calm down. How the hell am I supposed to order jalapenos for my Whataburger if they keep this up?!

By the way, I know it's not quite as crazy as these licence plates issues, but did anyone hear that someone is hanging nooses in trees around the capital building in Mississippi? Now THAT is a real racial issue. An actual symbol of of hate.

"J-A-P" ...is really just bad English grammar from a time of lower education. If someone called me J-A-P, I would just give them a hug and flash cards.

What if one is a proud Jewish American Princess?

I see people writing the derogatory word, j. a. p., too often on car forums I like to read. I call them out, usually by replying what if you wrote the word nig etc. I am not politically correct, but I am respectful.

In Australia, this kind of limiting of licence plate options by the filtering of lettering options available is done beforehand. This word certainly wouldn’t be allowed. The US seem a bit more liberal with the options made available.

will an Irish-American sue over 'MIC', or an Italian-American 'WOP'?

Racial slurs on license plates should be allowed.

If you are offended by a combination of letters on a licence plate you have chosen to take offense and that is your problem....You have presumed ill intent for what is most likely, to any reasonable person, simply a combination of letters as licence plates are just letters and numbers generated by a computer program in most cases.

In Australia, this kind of limiting of licence plate options by the filtering of lettering options available is done beforehand. This word certainly wouldn’t be allowed. The US seem a bit more liberal with the options made available.

Unfortunately Australia is just as prone to PC madness as much of the Western world.

Btw Section 18c needs reform.

There is no freedom from being offended.

I'm offended all the time, but I don't expect others to stop sharing their wacko opinions or showing their ideas on vehicles.

Vulgar should also be removed.

Saw that pool players can't use 8-BALL either. The PC world has gone crazy.

It could be worse. There's also these options from the DMV it seems...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/comments/8psbbx/nothing_but_trouble/

what if "George Oscar Oliver King" also wants a vanity plate made up of his initials?

Hard to fit all that on a plate.