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Do you consider the term "rice" or "ricer" to be racist?

The Wikipedia definition seems to indicate it has origins as a racist term and I’ve never understood why unix users have adopted this terms instead of something benign like “themes” or “theming” which I remember being in use long before I ever heard “rice”. So what gives? Why use “rice” instead of “theme”?

polymerwitch ,
@polymerwitch@lemmy.ml avatar

I’m not a part of the demographic who would experience racism around this. So, I can’t comment there.

I am a white hipster though. So, I usually call my window manager customizations “artisanally hand crafted”.

Nuuskis9 ,

I’ve been living with this term for a decade now and this is literally the first time I hear someone gets offended from that word.

Are you const_void asian by yourself?

humanplayer2 ,

I don’t think OP said they were offended.

scrubbles ,
@scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech avatar

Just because no one you know gets offended doesn’t mean it’s not racist.

Nuuskis9 ,

Lol. But if it was the case, I bet I’ve seen this word offending someone or being racist would’ve occured at least once during the decade?

Linux users still brigs up wifi and SystemD regurarly so if there were a room for this particular word being offensive I’m 100% sure it would be discussed at least twice during a decade.

I could accept op being right if this was discussed more than zero times before, even though I don’t get how and why people gets offended by any word. Even less I get why on earth anybody would get offended for some 3rd person and I accept it just being me who don’t gets it.

scrubbles ,
@scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech avatar

Again, just because no one in the room you were talking in thought it was offensive doesnt mean it’s not outside of that room.

After all, you’re here, in a different room with new people and the new people are offering you new perspectives. One of those new perspectives is that that is a racist term.

drdnl ,

I thought it had to do with the fact that most themes on Linux consist of a large collection of dotfiles, dots, rice. But that might just be me

SkepticElliptic ,

No, it originally was a derogatory term for people who modify japanese cars. Then it began to apply to shoddy or garish modifications to any car. Then people started using it to mean modifying something to their own tastes.

Sharpiemarker ,

Yes, it is a derogatory term from car modification. Taking away the context doesn’t make it any less racist.

eltimablo ,

Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements

ErevanDB ,

First time I’m hearing of this, how would this possibly be racist?

be_excellent_to_each_other ,
@be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social avatar

Decades ago it (in my experience) originated from the use of usually gaudy non-performance enhancements to Japanese or other foreign cars (mostly originally Hondas IIRC) to make them look fast or faster without actually doing anything to make them fast. (gigantic rear spoilers, loud exhaust, neon underlights, etc)

In a pretty short time it bled into doing the same to any slow car (I think it was mostly Hondas to start because so many people were doing it to Honda Civics at the time), then I think (again this is just in my own usage at the time) into usually gaudy non-performance enhancements to ANY car.

There's probably also some connection to "rice burners" which I think predates the word, which I first heard applied to motorcycles, again Japanese brands like Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and then later sometimes to cars from similar brands.

The racism in "ricing" comes from the idea that since the original targets of the term tended to be Japanese or other asian cars (Kia, hyundai) and with the perception that rice is closely associated with those cultures -- "ricing out" your car essentially meant "covering it with gaudy fripperies like those Japanese cars."

I understand why some folks think it's racist, and I understand why some folks don't, but I don't use the term anymore because I decided it wasn't that hard to use another word, and just because I don't think it's hurtful that doesn't mean it isn't to someone.

@tables

Edit - moved parenthesis

tkk13909 ,
@tkk13909@fosstodon.org avatar

@const_void nobody cares. If you enter the Linux customization community, see the word "ricer" or "rice", and get offended, you probably need a break from the internet.

PoliticalAgitator ,

You can just say that you don’t care. You don’t need to frame your opinion as belonging to hundreds of people, none of whom asked you to.

And of course people in the community don’t care. If they did, they wouldn’t have joined the community.

gumpy ,

I’m surprised to see it suddenly in wide use here, honestly. I’ve been ‘in the linux community’ for 25 years or so and only started seeing people use it in this context in the last month. Jarring isn’t the right word but it seems sudden to me knowing the connotations from the mid-to-late 90s car culture.

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