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Personalized license plate owner: It's an ode to Harleys, not racism ("DYNGR")
Muskegon Chronicle ^ | 12/10/09

Posted on 12/10/2009 1:48:41 PM PST by earlJam

Personalized license plate owner: It's an ode to Harleys, not racism

By Chad D. Lerch | Muskegon Chronicle

December 10, 2009, 3:11PM

MUSKEGON COUNTY -- Richard Macaulay is a Harley-Davidson lover through and through.

The Muskegon man said he takes pride in his Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide motorcycle, which he keeps in immaculate condition.

Macaulay said he was shocked to receive a letter from the Michigan Secretary of State's office recently stating that his personalized license plate of seven years had been revoked.

The Secretary of State's office informed the retired factory worker that a complaint from a Muskegon Heights woman had surfaced, claiming the personalized tag was racially insensitive.

The plate reads: DYNGR.

Tiffany Gilmore filed the complaint last month. Gilmore, who is black, believed the plate encouraged racism toward blacks.

Macaulay says the plate, which was renewed every year without objection is an ode to his love of the Harley Davidson brand of motorcycles.

He says it's an abbreviation that blends his two favorite Harleys: The Dyna Wide Glide and the Soft Tail Springer. Over the seven years he had the plate, Macaulay said he never received objections from anyone.

His brother-in-law thought it was an abbreviation for "danger." But, he said, no one ever thought it was racially motivated.

Until last month.

After he received the complaint letter, Macaulay said it took him several minutes to figure out what the fuss was about.

"I don't think that way," he said. "It took me a while to figure it out."

"This lady assumed immediately that I was a racist skinhead," Macaulay said. "There are so many other things going on, like the war. People have nothing better to do than spend their lives being pissed off."

Macaulay said he has applied for a new personalized license plate similar to the one that has been recalled. But it lacks the letter "N" so nobody gets confused.

"I would like to apologize to this lady for offending her, but that was not my intention," he said. "People who know me know that I'm not a racist. But she didn't really know what the plate meant."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: harleydavison; motorcycles; nannystate; thatsracist
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To: Paine in the Neck
All words or letter sequences that contain N or G or R are now deemed racist a priori.

The National Geospacial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) had better be careful too...

41 posted on 12/10/2009 3:16:14 PM PST by meowmeow (In Loving Memory of Our Dear Viking Kitty (1987-2006))
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To: earlJam

I’ll bet when he got that letter he felt like pouring a jigger and dancing a jig.


42 posted on 12/10/2009 3:22:06 PM PST by Fresh Wind ("...a whip of political correctness strangles their voice"-Vaclav Klaus on GW skeptics)
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To: DManA

“R” stands for rope! This letter must be banned as well.


43 posted on 12/10/2009 3:23:54 PM PST by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: earlJam
Here is one Tiffany that is not too bright.
44 posted on 12/10/2009 3:52:08 PM PST by ditto h
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To: Fresh Wind

This is bigger than jigger!


45 posted on 12/10/2009 3:52:37 PM PST by The Duke (Socialism is cool until somebody loses their paycheck.)
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To: Made In The USA

One day my boss came to work in a different car than usual.
I noticed the licence tag read “DIPPY”. I asked him why that tag and he replied it was his wife’s car and the state would not allow “DIPS—T”.


46 posted on 12/10/2009 4:04:58 PM PST by GOYAKLA
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To: TigersEye

Shaking my head again ...


47 posted on 12/10/2009 4:07:45 PM PST by pandoraou812 (time to dump tar & feathers on DC)
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To: earlJam

It took me quite a while to understand how that plate could have been offensive. I guess I just don’t think that way. Or look for that sort of thing. Or are freakin’ obsessesed about it, just waiting to be offended by the slightest thing.


48 posted on 12/10/2009 4:12:32 PM PST by jdsteel (CONGRESS: Take it again in twenty ten.)
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To: earlJam

Social Worker friend of mine wanted the plate SW4HIRE
It was turned down because someone at the State Level
thought it meant Smith and Wesson for Hire.


49 posted on 12/10/2009 4:14:08 PM PST by Prowler Fowler (One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.)
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To: earlJam

Sounds like someone needs to get a life rather that turning over rocks trying to find racism? *eyeroll*


50 posted on 12/10/2009 4:16:00 PM PST by chris_bdba
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To: earlJam
on and off the field and I look to you as a hero,

Here's where he made his mistake, apologizing for something he didn't do.

Also, where is the appeal process on personalized plates? Is there none in his state? One person can complain, without any proof at all, and get your plate pulled? No questions asked of the owner of the plate as to what it means, just pull the plate 'cause a person of color was offended by a nonsense word that she had no clue as to what it meant.

America is in sore need of being taken back from the fickin' freedom destroying liberals.

51 posted on 12/10/2009 4:47:54 PM PST by calex59
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To: earlJam
There is a private plane with the number N1553R that some claim is that N word. I don't know if it is urban legend photoshopped or the truth. I got the picture in an email a couple of years ago. Apparently, the plane is in California.
52 posted on 12/10/2009 5:24:18 PM PST by vetvetdoug (FUBO, a fashion statement for conservatives.)
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To: constitutiongirl

That woman is a nagger.


53 posted on 12/10/2009 6:04:29 PM PST by balls (Sarah, get off your facebook and do something!)
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To: jdsteel

Same here. I was on post #35 before I had that light bulb moment. Then I thought....WHO WOULD EVEN THINK THAT? Then another light bulb moment. Sheesh.....PEOPLE!!!!


54 posted on 12/10/2009 6:19:40 PM PST by oldteen
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To: jimt
I used to think the same way, until I rode a buddy's 80 cubic inch Superglide.

That should have only made it worse.
55 posted on 12/11/2009 5:34:08 AM PST by envisio (The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.)
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To: MediaMole

I remember a Texas plate HMFIC2. Most Army veterans will quickly translate this (could have a racial slant) but why Number 2?


56 posted on 12/11/2009 5:42:16 AM PST by 19th LA Inf
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To: earlJam

Have to agree with Richard here. Took me 5 minutes to figure out it was “bad”..


57 posted on 12/11/2009 5:46:26 AM PST by IamConservative (Liberty is all a good man needs to succeed.)
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To: vetvetdoug

The owner of N1553R lives in Hilo, Hi. It took me a while though, to see what some suspicious people could complain about.


58 posted on 12/11/2009 5:47:55 AM PST by 19th LA Inf
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To: 19th LA Inf

Second car


59 posted on 12/11/2009 5:55:50 AM PST by usmcobra (Your chances of dying in bed are reduced by getting out of it, but most people still die in bed)
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To: earlJam
Tiffany Gilmore filed the complaint last month. Gilmore, who is black, believed the plate encouraged racism toward blacks.

What's on her license plate, H8 YT ?

60 posted on 12/11/2009 5:57:17 AM PST by Ezekiel (The Obama-nation began with the Inauguration of Desolation.)
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