‘I am not driving around with this’: Woman panics after receiving a potentially offensive license plate

A video has gone viral on TikTok in which a woman is in a mild state of panic because of her new and potentially offensive license plate.

In the 10-second clip, posted by MemesNStuff (username @memesnstff), the young lady holds up her new plate, which reads “NGA 9ER,” before appearing on screen herself and telling her audience that she’s going to get a custom plate because “this one looks so bad.” A caption on the screen throughout the video reads, “IM GONNA LOOK LIKE A RACIST NOOOO.”

For anyone confused by the woman’s issue with the plate, she suggests the first three letters on it resemble one of the worst words in the English language (it begins with “N” and is considered horrendously racist if you still need clues). It is, therefore, understandable that she’d be concerned about how people might perceive her if they see the plate and believe it’s intentional rather than an unfortunate random crumbling of the proverbial cookie.

As you might expect, TikTok users responded en masse with wildly varied viewpoints.

How did TikTok react?

Somewhat worryingly, there was a widespread trend of people who wanted the plate for themselves, with comments suggesting as much including, “we can trade,” “Name your price,” “I need that,” “I want that plate,” “ILL TAKE IT,” “Dream plate,” “I WOULD KEEP IT,” and “how much?”

The above comments prompted one person to say, “The comments are killing me.”

Another concerned user wrote, “i get my new plate tomorrow i hope this isn’t a sign” followed by a crying emoji.

Meanwhile, some people just didn’t understand what the problem was. Several users wrote, “I don’t get it,” and another said, “What do u mean by that?” Unaware of the real world or just shielding themselves from the negativity it offers?

One user was reminded of a similar experience they had, where there license plate read “NGA 2SL,” which was made even worse by the fact that they “had a mustang so it looked like I did it on purpose.”

A study by the research organization Civic Science found that 18% of American adults have had a vanity (or custom) license plate at some point in their lifetime, and those people reported they were happier than those who settled for the license plate that came with their cars. Perhaps the woman in the video should go down the custom route because not only would she remove the potential issue of offending people, but she’d also be happier in general, apparently.