Hey, we should all really stop using racist slang to refer to customozation

blashork [she/her]@hexbear.net to Unixporn@lemmy.ml – 131 points –

Meta post I've decided to make. I enjoyed the unixporn subreddit a lot when I used reddit more. I enjoy customizing my linux de as much as the next nerd.

But you definitely shouldn't use racist slang to refer to the process.

To be clear, I didn't know the origin of the term 'ricing' until fairly recently. I was chattimg with my friend and used it to describe my de setup. They informed me that apparently it's from car customization, and is a pejorative against generally asian men who customize their car to look like a racecar.

After learning this I was sad to realize just how engrained it is in linux de customization culture. I personally have stopped using the term, and I would ask everyone here stop as well.

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I swear these people spend more time learning ye olde slurs and making up new ones than actual racists.

All they want to do is change what we call stuff, its about having power and influence.

Getting people acclimated to obeying authority by starting with menial commands is a real thing. For it to work, the person doing it needs to have some authority and the commands actually have to be things that the other person won’t object to. Do these people have authority over you? Does changing how you talk about Unix desktops seems like a reasonable command to start that process?

Now, I have no problem with viewing random strangers as authority figures if that’s what you’re into, but it seems a lot more likely that you’ve used this idea of compelled-language-as-social-control as a thought-terminating cliche to justify not thinking about why someone might care about randos online using the word “ricing”. And to be fair, it seems like a weird use a mental energy if the point is to assert dominance, but at the same time, you’re the one engaging with it, so what does that say about you?

But they often have the ear of the authorities, (here its the mods), and thats nearly as good.

So you’re subjecting yourself to authority that you believe is acclimating you to do things against your will?

No, just complaining about people who try this stuff.

And tbh, I get sucked into internet arguments way too easily.

No, there are just a metric shit ton of English words and terms that hail from our very much more racist past, and we would like our speech to reflect our values and not the values of our KKK grandparents.

No, you're just both racists and you feel extremely threatened by it, you don't engage on good faith at all and instead on just preserving the status quo.