Please explain to me how this could ever be construed as racist?I can try, but you need to suspend disbelief.
In the state of Virginia, in 1993 I attempted to get personalized license plates with my nickname (Drumbo).
The DMV computer "flagged" my application and it was rejected on the grounds that "Drumbo" constitutes a racial slur. Stunned, I appealed the decision and eventually spoke with a supervisor. The reasoning went, that "Drumbo" was akin to "Sambo" which the PC crowd had recently banned in the state (both the children's story from libraries and a popular pancake house on Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach called "Lil' Black Sambo's").
"How do you conclude that 'Drumbo' resembles 'Sambo' any more than it resembles 'Dumbo' the Disney elephant, 'Bozo' the famous clown or any of several Marx Brothers"? I asked.
In true bureaucratic fashion, I was told that under the "rules" of the DMV, which I assume was supported by some useless state legislation, any epithet resembling 'Sambo' was considered racist and summarily rejected. The suffix 'bo' was especially damning because it was a contraction of "Boy", an equally damnable racist phrase. You can't fight City Hall FRiends.
I reapplied with a new variation and received my new plates with no problems.
Evidently "Boy" had not been programed into the computer as a rejectable phrase. I covered the "Y" with white tape and drove happily with those plates for years.
