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

blashork [she/her]@hexbear.net to Unixporn@lemmy.ml – 132 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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You want to be close minded? That’s on you.

I dont see how you can defend this. You acknowledge it’s based on a racist term. There’s no reclamation going on, you just lifted context and addressed none of the problems. And no part of you is saying “we could probably use another work here” in all of this?

Defend what?

How is rice racist? Japanese cars were called ricers for a brief moment 40 yrs ago. It is derogatory towards two Japanese corporations.

Where are people entering the equation?

Are you sure you don’t have a you problem?

Note - people can call their setups as they please. This is unixporn. Call it my desktop $ shot for all I care. I am not into rules in this case; my convictions end with me, as that is our shared limit.

They were not called that “for a brief moment” it’s been used to put down import tuner cars for decades by people who’d rather drive mustangs and camaros. It was meant to put down:

  • small displacement import cars
  • tuned import cars
  • (and this one i remember cause it wasnt that long ago) cars with cheap or considered tacky modifications that often only alluded to performance modification.

It’s so obviously loaded with racist connotation that I dont know why you’d want to defend it so badly.

Also it’s not two manufacturers. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mistubishi were all putting out sporty cars that were getting performance numbers rivaling v8 block american cars at the time

It was not a brief moment, it's still used that way to this day in modern car culture.

I disagree. People who weren't there when the term was racist are only aware of it being racist because it was revealed to be a old racist term.