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submitted 1 year ago by blashork@hexbear.net to c/unixporn@lemmy.ml

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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[-] Blamemeta@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago

Nah, I like the term.

It refers to early 00s car culture, a race car had all go no show, a ricer had all show no go. It's just the next iteration of the term. And it's pejorative to anyone who does that shit, not asian men. I have no idea where y'all got that idea from.

[-] inasaba@lemmy.ml 75 points 1 year ago

It's also racist in car culture.

[-] Blamemeta@lemm.ee -2 points 1 year ago

Okay, how? How does it discriminate based on race or ethnicity?

[-] infinitevalence@discuss.online 19 points 1 year ago

Its not a TexMex taco, its a Beaner taco... Its not a race car, its a beaner car.... Substitute with any other racist name or description and its easy to see why its not ok.

[-] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

The term is definitely for cars that have had all the money spent on bling, that are as you say, not capable. All show, no go.

A mate of mine had a sleeper. The only thing you could see that gave it away was a small sticker that said "eats rice".

It was a call to any rice to give him a try.

[-] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You can't say sleeper, because it's a pejorative for those with narcolepsy.

[-] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Actually it's from the 1970s. And yes you are right, it's pejorative, and implies a particular ethnicity. Which is why it's racist. You could say it's a clunker for example, no ethnicity implied.

Imagine that you are blue. And we start associating blueberries, they happen to be the national dish of the blue ethnic group, with shit. And people start calling things they think are shit or not good "blueberries", do you not think you would feel targeted? No one said "blue is shit", but the coding is obvious to anyone with more than a half neuron.

[-] Crozekiel@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Clunker really doesn't come close to the cars it referenced though. Not trying to defend it's use, I understand what everyone is talking about here. There really is no good replacement word though, which is frustrating. Like, that entire era of car culture came and went before many of us involved knew the word was racist (or at least before we were mature enough to care).

[-] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I know clunker isn't sepcific enough, I was oversimplying for the sake of explaination. The crazy thing about language is that you can use multiple words together to describe complex concepts. Who'd have thunk!

[-] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

That's true, but we are lazy Americans - if we can't describe something with two syllables or a 4 letter acronym, we give up (or apparently come up with something racist to refer to it instead...)

For the record, I'm not arguing against your points or trying to defend the words use.

this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
142 points (63.5% liked)

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