Hey, South Dakota Department of Revenue, how’d you let this license plate fly?
“ARYAN”—can you put that on a license plate? Not in Maryland, where “ARYAN” is one of 4,900 terms banned from vanity plates (also out in Maryland: “OLD FART” and “BEDWETR”… which could be synonyms for the Hitler Youth praiser).
Not to defend Klansmen, but the photo reminds me of the kerfuffle ten years ago about a Rapid City woman’s “MPEACHW” plate and the response of the late, great civil rights lawyer Patrick Duffy:
Duffy, who has worked on key civil rights cases involving American Indian voting issues, said action by the state means that any personalized plate must be recalled because of a single complaint, no matter what the message.
“What this means is that every atheist can now wipe out anything that seems to refer to God,” Duffy said. “Will vanity plates for members of the armed forces suddenly be declared offensive if they offend a single pacifist? It’s absolutely preposterous.”
Even obscenity must be judged by the mores and standards of a community, not just one offended individual, Duffy said.
“Here, all we need is one lone citizen who is apparently invested with the complete authority to determine what is good taste and decency for all the rest of us,” he said. “It seems a little tyrannical to me” [Kevin Woster, “State Looks to Pull Anti-Bush License Plate,” Rapid City Journal online, May 3, 2007].
So, for your evening civics discussion, should the state allow apparent declarations of racist sentiment on its license plates?
Who knows? The term “Aryan” means “honorable, respectable, and noble” in Classical Sanskrit.
The use of the term “Aryan” is synonymous for “Indo-European”. It is regarded with a racist connotation in places other than India.
“Aryan” is used for boys and “Arya” is used for girls.
Unfortunately, most people in America or even Europe for that matter don’t realize that “Aryan” and symbol “swastika” have completely different meanings in India.
https://www.quora.com/Is-Aryan-a-good-name-to-give-a-child
How do we know what it means?
A RYAN – one of many Ryans who must live in Pierre
A.R.Y.A.N – an acronym for any one of many possible phrases, most likely:
“a registered yuppie, and nubile”
“almost radical youth, and nubile”
One of those odd words people make where you say the letters:
Eh, Are You A Nubile?
Who knows. But maybe the person will hear about this and come blogging and tell us. Maybe it means people of Iranian descent and proud of it, or maybe it means people of Germanic descent and proud of it. Maybe it was a random letter generated license like many of the ones you see.
Porter’s right. Many Buddhists refer to themselves as ariyapuggalas. The Noble Eightfold path is called aryamarga. And the Big Dipper forms a swastika as it wheels around Polaris during the four seasons.
http://www.spiritualpunx.com/blog/2014/8/21/the-big-dipper-a-swastika-perhaps-where-the-symbol-began-on-earth
Hey Mr. H! I out googled you by just asking my computer “who issues license plates in South Dakota.”
I did not think you were right with the Transportation Department. Here is the form you can fill out. It is the Revenue Secretary’s form. It says you cannot have vulgar terms.
https://www.state.sd.us/eforms/secure/eforms/E1794V10-SDPersonalizedLicensePlateApplication.pdf
Quit defining Aryan, this is racist South Dakota, we all know what it refers to.
Mr. C, here is an interesting web page to play with
https://apps.sd.gov/RV66Renewals/checkplates/checkplates.aspx
You can see what is used and isn’t. I won’t bore you with the terms I checked and found they were used, but you should try this out.
spoiler: ROGERC is available currently, as is GRAVY
Well, it fits in Republican Pierre and my first reaction was white pride and that it comes off as racist. But I’m sure the person doesn’t mean anything buy it and is a very loving Christian, aren’t they all.
A person really has to have some self esteem issues if that’s the only thing they can think of to be proud of about themselves.
anything by it (not buy it).
In Anchorage, the state demanded CMFIC had to be recalled. Even though the owner claimed it meant “Churchmen Make Friends In Church.” After that, they established guidelines. I just never cared to learn what they were; I only thought human nature was great.
Pretty proud of himself. Wonder if he (or she) likes the Nissan.
I’m with Roger. It’s from some pig white supremacist. Probably a follower of the hate groups that are now called “Christian Gatherings” by Pat Powers.
Grudzie … Is SNOWFLAKE available? That’d be good for you, amigo. lol Or GOATMASTER.
There is one in Redfield that reads; Fuhrer.
Mr. Lansing, I realize you are not from South Dakota but the licenses here can only be 7 letters. SNOWFLA and GOATMAS are both available.
FUHRER seems a little on the edge but maybe the Revenue Department, or if Mr. H is righter than ol’ grudz it is the Transportation Department, does not remember what that means.
I can only hope the owner of that plate, declarative as they may be, comes forward to explain. I note it looks like a little foreign car so one could not wear a tall hat while driving it.
When one puts in the patience and the expense and effort to have a vanity plate made, the words or parts of words on that plate have meaning, and the desire to identify with that meaning and put it out there to the public. They have the meaning that the owner puts into them. And I agree with Mr. C. Never mind what the word meant at its origin in the mists of time and language., or centuries ago. We know what it means here and now, and I strongly suspect the owner knows and means exactly what we think it means.
As for whether the state should ban it: I’m enough of a civil rights advocate to say “yea” and enough of a First Amendment advocate to say “nay”.
Decisions are so hard when one is multi-philosophical.
Aryan? Fuhrer? I guess we know which prison gang is running the license plate quality control job, these days.
Maybe it’s just some fellow’s name.
Or the name of a business. Like http://www.aryantransport.com/ where they seem to transport cars, not people.
Grudzie … If you don’t know what cmfic means you can look it up here. Be careful, though.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/
I think it’s an invitation : KEY ME.
I question why states allow these vanity plates in the first place. It must be like state-sanctioned gambling, except rather than appealing to greed to make you part with your money, they appeal to certain people with narcissistic personality disorders.
Maybe I’m labeling myself as mentally crippled, but I admit I’ve toyed with the idea since my ex-father-in-law had a go-around with the Janklow administration about his desire to put “NONUKE” plates on his VW van. They turned him down, claiming it could be misunderstood as “no nookie.” Nosh*t!!!! Clearly, one can’t put a slogan on one’s vehicle that disagrees with whatever Republican Dear Leader is occupying the Governor’s Mansion. Most of the slogans I would put on would probably be disallowed as vulgar or too liberal.
Anyway, we used to see one van on our way to work: 6WAHOOS. We saw that for years on a mini-van. Then we didn’t see it for almost a year. Finally, it showed up once again, except it said: 5WAHOOS. What happened? A death? A divorce?
In Wisconsin you can use more than six characters, allowing more creativity. My plate would be something like: “_ _ _ _ _ __ _”. I’m a big fan of Jimmy Kimmel’s censoring bits, where he takes a speech by a politician and bleeps out certain words. Have fun filling in the blanks.
When you work on the oil rigs the local sheriff usually meets the rig, the support vehicles and the pickups of the roughnecks at the border and demands that everyone buy that state’s license plates, immediately. I used to get around it by applying for vanity plates which took many months to arrive in Wyoming or Montana and didn’t have to be paid for until you picked them up. Once the well was finished and we were leaving, I’d just send a form to the state cancelling the order. That form was available when you got the form to order the vanity plates. I thought myself to be cleverer than most, as Grudzie would say.
Good links, Grudz! And you’re not the only one to notice I initially cited the wrong department. I have revised the text at the top to cite Revenue, not Transportation.
No, Buck, it is not an invitation to illegal activity. No keying allowed.
Still available: NOTRUMP and DFPBLOG.
Also available: ALLAH, ISLAM, and SHARIA.
Plus, KKKLAN, WITEPWR, and NOBLAX. [I feel really yucky now.]
Regardless of alternative definitions, “Aryan” clearly carries a racist message to most viewers. Is that message any more acceptable if some joker tries to put “BIG ASS” on his plate to celebrate the size of his donkey?
I would prefer a GOP SUX license plate, but then some Trumptard would vandalize my car because that’s how small minded loud mouth idiots are -nowadays.
I’d shoot ’em in the balls if I caught ’em in the act though, and that might be pretty darn satisfying. Maybe I’ll get that personalized plate after all.
What kind of self-respecting white supremacist drives a rice wagon? This would make more sense on a lifted Silverado, dontcha think? Sheesh. It’s not even a Rogue One edition. #empiredidnothingwrong
Crossgrain, that’s the funniest comment I’ve heard yet today! Get a truck and #rollcoal!
Adam, the two Democratic stickers on my Beetle bumpers have incurred no vandalism. Neither did the campaign signs in my window and on my bike last year. Laughter and mockery, perhaps, but no criminal activity.
Speaking of being keyed or vandalized, that’s a reality. I want one of those bumper stickers that says ELECT A CLOWN, EXPECT A CIRCUS. But the spouse says we can’t afford the constant repaints.