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’s a stupid term that is based on an antiquated mindset where Asian people are not creative and cannot invent anything of substance; we are only able to poorly imitate what the West develops. It needs to die.
Also, I’ve been using and customizing the X Window-based desktop for 25 years and I’m not sure that the term “ricing” was ever used anywhere before Reddit and even then only within the past decade or so. Let it die with that culture.
I’m with you especially on that last part. My most insane privately racist lug-mate called it modding or customization. Even in the windows shell hacking scene no one described it like that.
I do like using “tuning” though, fond memories of import tuner magazine and my dearly departed first car and first computer.
If you cant put a set of rays on your pc can you even call it done? 😤
Now they need to just find an Asian person saying it’s not a big deal so they can dismiss your comment.
deleted by creator
Thank you for making this post. The number of times I’ve seen the term used here lately has been bothering me.
Everything bothers you
This bothers me
Oh, bother…
I agree, it’s another example of racism being burned into the English language. You should always make an effort to change and adapt your vocabulary, to not do so is to endorse the very racist history that the term is based on.
Also the term just doesn’t make sense? I have no idea what “rice” is supposed to evoke outside of its history in the car industry/communities. “Cooking” seems to be the better term because people on Unixporn “cook up” their desktop to make it as appealing as possible (to their tastes or to the tastes of the group). So a submission would be someone’s “cook/dish.” The whole “let them cook” remark is also a relevant catchphrase.
We can do better, and why disregard that opportunity? “Rice” is a two-faced compliment with racist roots. It deserves the bucket.
I have no idea what “rice” is supposed to evoke outside of its history in the car industry/communities.
Whoops, your virtue signal is showing.
Don’t go deleting it now.
Ouch
wdym, you think people can’t change? Most everyone here has used rice before because it was the dominant term in this comm. Now that this post is here, there’s no excuse for it. This is not the clever own you think it is.
What a loser, get an actual argument instead of digging up my old comments that aren’t relevant to the current discussion, or just go back to reddit, they’d love you.
Lmao, it’s cute one of your comrades remove the image on your instance.
I didn’t say people can’t change. But 8 days ago you used the term “outside of its history in the car industry/communities” and now you claim you have no idea what it’s supposed to be? Give me a break lol. Are you outing yourself as a racist from 8 days ago? Wow quick reform.
This post doesn’t change anything. It’s just a bunch of hexbear snowflakes whining that a community has enough brain cells to know context matters.
How exactly is your use of a term you deemed racist not relevant in a post where you and your comrades are going around calling people racist for using a term they don’t deem racist? Are you actually serious right now? You can’t see the relevance? Take your blinders off.
At any rate, I didn’t dig up the comment on purpose. I was seeing how much hexbear engages with lemmy.ml/c/unixporn and wouldn’t you know it out of the 210 comments your instance had only 5 of them were not in this post. Not surprising since you only had 22 users subscribed here. Your comment was one of the 5 and I went to see if there was any consistency, expecting to see hexbear users call it out as racist if it came up as you all clearly think it is now. To my lack of surprise I saw the opposite, 80% not having anything to do with the term and your humdinger exposing yourself.
You’ve underminded your entire argument and exposed your bad faith tactics in one fell swoop. You should probably stay in your safe space instead of trying to find things you think are you dunking on people.
Cool story bro, stay mad. Even in your little mind of hexbears vs. The world, the hexbears won.
The OP is a hexbear who previously brought this up in the subreddit. Now it’s brought up here and now you’re mad there’s pushback. You can’t engage with us on the and now you’re resorting to meaningless personal jabs.
Stay mad poo poo pee pee.
You’re delusional. My only exposure to hexbear prior to this post was communities on large instances wanting to defederate you. This whole post makes it abundantly clear why that’s the case. You’re all very clearly a group of losers that banded together for some type of us vs the world bullshit, you even tried to pass off hexbears vs the world as my idea when it’s actually yours. It’s pathetic.
You can’t engage with us on the and now you’re resorting to meaningless personal jabs
On the what now? Do you just rage type and submit without making sure your words form coherent thoughts? Try again junior. It’s not a personal jab to point out you outed yourself as a racist by your own definition. Almost every comment you lot have made to me has been dodging my original point that there are a lot of you piling on and then attacking me. I guess hypocrisy is lost in your small world eh?
As an aside, do hexbears have an infantilzation fetish? The amount of your users randomly bringing in baby shit is really odd. Oh, what’s that? You all lean on tactic that was pivotal to maintaining slavery? But go ahead and tell me again how you’re not racist anymore. In case a hexbear mod removes the link, I linked to the wikipedia page on infantilization.
To get this straightened up, you’ve outed yourself as a racist both by using a term you now claim is racist that you had no idea how it would be used outside of a racist context and your whole lot use the same tactics with people you disagree with that were used to prolong slavery. Got it.
I accept your surrender. Better luck with the virtue signaling next time. Try to stop being racist 👍
UH OHHHHH, better hand in your hexbear membership, you don’t fit in, you dirty racist
Yeah, “cooking” is superior
Asian here and rice eater here.
Language doesn’t work in absolute way, it could change its meaning all the time.
It’s better to regain is neutral meaning instead of letting the racist weaponize neutral word.
Also, this mindset is also Western centric, go to Asia and people in Linux and car community simply use the word without any negative connotation.
Edit: By doing this, you’re no different from imperial government who tries to make one standard of morality, which in fact further hurts Asian living in Asia. And as Indonesian, I’m hurt with your statement. Let me regain the neutral meaning. Don’t speak for us.
I wasn’t aware of this, thank you for posting
100% agree!!
I’ve never used the term and the first time I’ve heard about it even without knowing the origins/meaning it already was clear to be a pejorative term.
The excuse the mods in the old r/unixporn subreddit was that the term was broadly accepted by the community.
Well guess what we are not reddit and one of the reasons I left reddit was because I was tired of being in communities like that. We can do better, let’s shape our communities with the right values and not just carry on a legacy that should’ve died with reddit itself.
Yes please, I agree.
The arguments being made here are the same ones that were used for f*ggot, tr*p, nword, g*psy, r*dskins, etc etc etc.
It’s the same damn thing every single time, a bunch of reactionaries will piss and whine and piss and whine and piss and whine because they have to make the most minimal amount of effort to adopt a new word in their vocabulary instead of the problem one. They will piss and whine forever until eventually accepting it, like all the others historically.
They join a long long line of pissy whiney losers for making the same tired old arguments we’ve seen for so many things before.
ITT:
TIL thanks for the heads up o7
In general I don’t agree with the sort of broad language policing some people seem to be advocating for here, but this word does seem pretty inseparable from a racist joke. What could rice have to do with computer customization? Even if it’s distanced from the original meaning the word itself implies that racist joke. So yeah probably better avoided and replaced.
Sry I’ve been an absent mod here. Would anyone like to help mod this community?
I’ve also added a no-racist terms rule to the sidebar.
Linguist here. Totally agree the term should stop being used. As a practical concern, it would be easier to get people to stop using it if there were another term that was a drop-in replacement.
Yeah, we can say “customize” as the verb, but what about the noun? Sharing “customizations” doesn’t really refer to the same kind of DE-specific customization as the other term.
Is there any such word in usage? If not, can we coin one and just start dropping it on forums?
I’m not bothered by it, but it is tacky.
When I was growing up, the term wasn’t necessarily directed specifically towards Asian people, but Asian manufactured cars themselves. IE a Honda with a body kit and a loud muffler would be referred to as a “Rice Grinder” by some. It doesn’t register in this context to me as racist, but definitely culturally insensitive and stupid.
I’m okay with the move to not use it.
Ok, but read what you just wrote again. “Asian manufactured cars” is only slightly abstracted from what you just tacitly acknowledged is racist.
I’m not saying the users of the term for Linux are intentionally being racist, but singling out Asian-manufactured cars is, or at least has been historically. Also, people put aesthetic mods on low quality American car models just as frequently.
I dont agree, and reserve the right to differentiate racism from insensitivity depending on context. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be on the same page, that the term shouldn’t be used.
Ok why is there a shit storm about this word now? Linux modding isn’t new. Ricing has been used to describe it for a long time. In many ways… isn’t it good to pave over bad meanings with inclusive meanings?
because this isn’t reddit anymore and racism isn’t the default position.
As an east Asian that eats rice every day, I must say that I don’t consider this term racist at all. The meanings of words shift over time. For example, nice used to mean “foolish, ignorant, frivolous, senseless,” but now it means “kind, thoughtful.” Gay used to mean “lighthearted, joyous,” then a slang for homosexuals, and ultimately became the term with which many homosexuals choose to describe themselves. Rice may have been a racist term, but now what it means is “to extensively customize one’s desktop system to one’s liking, especially Linux systems.” It no longer is racist.
As an Asian American, I assure you this is offensive to me. This is not a word that has shifted in the common vernacular here to mean anything that doesn’t still have a strong base in its racist roots. For example, ricing your car still has derogatory undertones.
I respect your freedom to choose which terms to consider offensive, and I do not plan to talk you into accepting terms offensive to you. Nevertheless, I want to say that while “ricing your car” does have derogatory undertones, “ricing my Linux system” just does not have the same undertone. Ricing cars, as in the racist context, means customizing cars so heavily that it becomes an abomination. Ricing a Linux system, on the other hand, is the act of making a Linux desktop system as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
