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.
It has a new meaning now. No one cares and few would bother looking up where it comes from. Languages are dynamic and change all the time. The word removed meant a stick of wood but now it means something else and few would use it to refer to someone else. This doesn’t mean we should change literature that was written before this change. tl;dr: the meaning has changed and no one cares.
The words F-g and F----t are used in UK parlance daily as slag for a cigarette and a pork offel meatball respectively. The word “f-g” falls out my gob so naturally when refering to a cigarette I always have to check myself on American run sites.
You can write it out, no need to censor yourself. You’re not calling someone a removed, are you ? you’re being descriptive about the usage of that word. Censorship creates stigma, we have to recognize when to do it (= when usage is intended harm)
Again, I’m so used to Reddit with it’s automods and lack of nuance that I’ve had to train myself to censor it. I got a strike there from the admin on a UK specific sub for using it once, lol.
The word has not changed that much in common use (as far as it gets common at all). Ricing your car still has derogatory undertones, and even if you aren’t aware, it still has racist undertones as well if you think about it at all. Just because you aren’t aware if it doesn’t mean the affected people aren’t. If you said ricing in this context around me, I’d assume you’re ignorant at best, and deliberately racist and trying to offend me at worst
