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.

    • Grownbravy [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      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