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.

  • KnilAdlez [none/use name]
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    281 year ago

    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?

      • KnilAdlez [none/use name]
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        261 year ago

        Ricing is a racist term. I am telling you right now that it is a racist term referring to a type of car modding that Asians are stereotyped as doing. It is explicitly used to deride and exclude Asians from the car enthusiast community. Anyone who’s into cars or around people who are has heard this term, but you can Google it if you want.

        What does it say about you that you’ll deny basic, well known facts to defend using such an exclusionary term in a tiny community with a large amount of Asians in it?

          • KnilAdlez [none/use name]
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            181 year ago

            Oh really? Do the whites you hang out with use the term refer to any car mod you don’t like? Have you asked them where the term comes from?

          • @Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            61 year ago

            Asian American into car culture here. Ricing and ricers are still derogatory and racist terms to this day. Do not mistake your ignorance of something that no one would bother to tell you for knowledge that it’s not true.

              • @Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                1 year ago

                It was Indiana at the time, as far as getting cars and racism getting mixed together in one experience for me. These days I’m in Texas, but haven’t engaged too much with the car culture here yet.

                Edit: btw, sorry for my tone in my previous comment, I was honestly getting pretty worked up going through the comments in this post.

      • Nakoichi [they/them]
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        131 year ago

        As someone that was very into cars (still kind of am but not nearly so much) and tuner culture. Yes, “rice” in the context of customizing a machine to your specific performance needs has always had racist baggage and likely always will. This is a weird hill to die on bud, and it makes you look very sus.