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.

I disagree.

Ricers, in the 80s, as a term that referred to Japanese cars (Honda, Toyota) who burned rice instead of gas. This is bad. Full stop.

From there, rice, in the 90s-00s, referred to the Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancement: typically bolted onto Honda and Toyota, it moved from that to any cosmetic car customization 10s.

Now we are in 20s, and rice refers to customizations that represent one’s personal choices regarding cosmetic enhancements.

Is that a bad thing?

Why should a word be locked in on a definition from 40 yrs ago? Why should it be stuck in the past?

Why not reclaim a word? Customizing a desktop is a labor of love. It takes a decent amount of time, and is deeply personal, representing one’s own taste.

are you white by any chance

You’re not disregarding someone opinion based on race per chance.

white isn’t a race

It’s really not shitty to ask if they have the background to understand what racism is to people who experience it. I grew up blessed with a good community, and experiencing racism for the first time when I moved away is still one of the most painful things I’ve ever felt.

it started as something racist
but then—

We can stop right there

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.

It was racist WITHIN MY OWN LIFETIME unless you fell out the applecart yesterday that still applies to you.

I am constantly amazed at how many people online seem to have fallen off of the turnip truck yesterday.

Are you fucking stupid, you think Japanese cars used to run on rice?

Oh no, I jumped straight to cussing people out and conducting personal attacks against somebody trying to argue for continual use of a racist term

This fact about the word rice is new to a lot of folks here, including me.

This is why we’re in this thread trying to educate you, my child.

You’re plainly in the wrong here in terms of behaviour. But I also know there’s no getting through to you based on your behaviour.

You’re a tone policing dweeb arguing in support of being racist. If you need more context for the history of the term, please read further here

That is actual bs. Rice doesn’t bother me - I don’t read rice with a racial connection, at all. Just doesn’t exist for me. It is food and something that’s been customized.

I say fuck it. Shatter the limitations of fraudulent history; don’t just go punk, go full cyberpunk.

The major culture is hung up in non issues; and why not? So go counter to the culture:

rice your desktop.

You do you however. I am not here to say how you should think and do.

It’s a term used to racially exclude people by calling Asian car enthusiasts tacky posers. Is that really the energy we want to bring (or rather keep) to the Linux community?

I don’t think it matters.

Can you be sure of that? And if it did matter to the public image of the Linux community, would agree to stop using that term, or is using a word that to this day has racist connotations more important to you than ensuring that all members of the Linux community feel welcome?

I see a lot of assumptions that rice, not a racist term, is a racist term. shrug

You go to the grocery store, grain aisle, and there is a bag of rice. What pops into your head?

Me, a tasty grain that complements many meals.

I’m seeing a bunch of tacked on cosmetic bits made to give the look of performance to computers. According to another post, that one-for-one matches my last known definition to the term.

Also nonracists using a racist term doesnt make the term stop being racist. Curing doesnt start by not meaning it when you keep using the racist term. You dont bandage a stab wound by continually stabbing the victim.

I’m curious if we have a detailed historic analysis of the origin of the term.

I always figured it came form the “rice burner” mocking for Japanese motorbikes and cars. I figured this was mostly a pick about their relatively low performance. Aside from the “Asians eat rice” source material, is that intended as an insult to Asians in general, or more directed to the design committees at Toyota and Honda-- that they couldn’t design a car capable of burning petrol?

To try a parallel concept: If an x86-64 enthusiast made fun of an ARM chip by saying it was “manufactured on a crumpet substrate” would that be an insult against the British, or more using that it comes from a British firm to provide vocabulary for a product-related insult?

OTOH, I never really saw the term widely used to describe a desktop configuration before here, and it feels weird because of that more than anything else. I’m trying to remember if it was seen in the “PC Case Mod” community circa 2000, because they actually used a fair number of techniques and ideas from the car tuning scene that also used the “ricing” term (lots of cold-cathode lighting and weird 12v accessories)

I’m curious if we have a detailed historic analysis of the origin of the term.

If you want to do the research be my guest, but I’m telling you right now, I’ve only ever heard the term used to mock an Asian person’s car mods.

If an x86-64 enthusiast made fun of an ARM chip by saying it was “manufactured on a crumpet substrate” would that be an insult against the British

made fun

There’s you answer. It is disrespect based on ethnicity.

I never really saw the term widely used to describe a desktop configuration before here

Then you should be fine with not using the term, right? Why are you working so hard to defend a word you claim you don’t see much? You have put all this effort into justifying using a word you have been told several times is racist that apparently other people don’t use according to you.

yes, using bigoted terminology throughout tech is a great example of the cyberpunk DYSTOPIA that fiction warned us about.

meanwhile, in the political side of punk, we’re antiracist and finding new words is the least we can do

From there, rice, in the 90s-00s, referred to the Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancement: typically bolted onto Honda and Toyota, it moved from that to any cosmetic car customization 10s.

[Citation Needed]

Any acronym other than the name of an organization can be presumed a retronym until proven otherwise

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Submit screenshots of all your *NIX desktops, themes, and nifty configurations, or submit anything else that will make themers happy. Maybe a server running on an Amiga, or a Thinkpad signed by Bjarne Stroustrup? Show the world how pretty your computer can be!

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

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