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.

  • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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      What could rice have to do with computer customization?

      Nothing, its a completely different meaning of the word rice.

      Even if it’s distanced from the original meaning the word itself implies that racist joke.

      Me and everyone I know didn’t know the history of the word at all until now. We didn’t think it implied anything, we just assumed it was another stupid nonsensical English word.

      • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        Nothing, its a completely different meaning of the word rice.

        Apparently it isn’t though, or at least wasn’t.

        We didn’t think it implied anything, we just assumed it was another stupid nonsensical English word.

        I guess it would be hard to know what people who don’t know might conclude if they think about it. But don’t most slang terms have some kind of near-surface etymology? Maybe someone could mistake it for being related to the practice of putting damp electronics in rice somehow. Idk, do you think the people who are opposed to its use are just muckraking?

        • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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          There are a lot of words and phrases that don’t make sense at all in English, so I usually don’t question things very much. Maybe I’m the weird one but I’ve never seen anyone ask about why we use the word rice.

          Idk, do you think the people who are opposed to its use are just muckraking?

          Idk what muckraking is, but I think those opposed to it are mostly correct in their thinking. I just think that this isn’t quite the same as other similar examples. This use of the word rice is so far detached from racism that most people don’t even know about the connection. There is no intention of racism, there is no perception of racism. I see no problem.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    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?

    • krolden@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      i nominate baste/basting/basted

      i’ll start using it if you start using it.

    • harry@lemmy.ml
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      Hi Linguist, which side of the linguist camp you are?; the one that thinks the meaning of the language is fix and people should be following it or the one that let people decides how the language works and let it change overtime?

      • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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        There aren’t really two sides of the linguist camp. That language changes naturally over time is well documented.

        And new coinages are part of that process. ;)

  • unix84@lemmy.sdf.org
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    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.

    • xXthrowawayXx [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      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.

    • roguetrick@kbin.social
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      Now they need to just find an Asian person saying it’s not a big deal so they can dismiss your comment.

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      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.

      The term at least since the 90s means to modify stuff to your heart’s content and literally creating something new, unique and personal.

      Idk where you went to get that “can’t invent anything of substance” thing, but you might want to check your internalized racism.

  • Dessalines@lemmy.mlM
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    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.

  • nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip
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    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.

    • panopticon [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      Ok, Asian here and rice eater here also and I think the right way to respond to racist cliches is with hostility, same way we ought to respond to Nazism and other forms of fascism. if you want to reclaim the word, fine whatever. But you’re drawing a false equivalence between westerners trying to self-criticize their use of chauvinistic language, and the imperial governments that enforce that chauvinism in the first place (wtf?)

      • nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip
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        westerners trying to self-criticize their use of chauvinistic language

        That’s the problem.

        Westerner often force this rules towards everyone.

        Like that one time someone got banned for using “nasi goreng” as their username with reasoning “it has similarity with Nazism” despite it’s on international group.

        Or when Asian English group that usually co-exist within recognition of different culture suddenly has Westerner that policing everything about language. “Oh this is so offensive towards Asian”, while no one in group never know or even used the word in negative connotation.

        While in reality because SEAsian are multi-language speaker, we just self moderate in case of potential language conflict, like budak in Malay is children, but in Indonesian means slave.

        • Vashti@feddit.uk
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          The thing is you aren’t the audience. Discussion about anti-Asian racism in English tends to be focused on the experiences of e.g. Asian-American people and on the racist abuse they get from white people.

          It’s actually that exact kind of self-moderation, surely? “hang on, doesn’t this word suck, let’s not use it”?

    • NormalC [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      Asian here and rice eater here.

      Ah yes, you need all your ethos cred for this one. No pick-me behavior for the crackers here. Not like there are billions of others with the same description as you (including a bangladeshi immigrant like me). I didn’t bring my own race into this until the “Im asian and this is okay” posts happened.

      It’s better to regain is neutral meaning instead of letting the racist weaponize neutral word.

      Racists love “neutral words.” It’s called dog whistling. Racists get their plausible deniability while they get to signal and exchange with other racists on public forums like this one. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t intend for this to happen, it’s still facilitated here. There’s always the possibility of new words, or are you too personally attached to “rice” for that to happen?

      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.

      We are in a international, primarily english speaking lemmy instance by the developers of the project. Stop moving the goalposts here. We are not in your rhetorical places in “Asia” where there’s no negative connotation. Of course it will seem “western centric.”

      For your last edit, fuck right off. People can see through your crocodile tears and self tokenization. This type of shit only works with white people who will accept your opinions more than others because it means they get to keep their status quo. Nice bringing up imperialism, you’d be great as a lapdog.

      • Dessalines@lemmy.mlM
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        1 year ago

        Unfortunately not surprised to see some unironic /r/asablackman going on here.

    • El_Rocha@lm.put.tf
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      Sorry friend, but reasoning with these people is always changing.

      If you think it’s ok and you’re not from the affected demography, you can’t have a voice and “you’re probably white”.

      If you think it’s ok and you’re actually from the affected demography, you’re just too dumb to understand your condition and have to let the white saviors and the “right” people from your demography explain to you why you should be angry and offended at everything.

  • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    How the fresh fuck is this even a thing still? Even back in the 90’s I heard dudes making gags about “Uncle Ben Hot Rods”. You know. RICE IT UP!

    GET IT? They’re shitty race cars made by a shitty race who only makes cheap stuff!

    🤮

  • Juice [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    I got called out for saying this once. At first I was like “what’s racist about rice” but when I googled it everything that came up was an explicitly anti-asian meme.

    So yeah the word is being used in the west as a racist term so non Asians should reconsider whether using the term helps or hurts their relationships with others within the communities we frequent. I think vigilance is better than ambivalence.

  • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    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.

      • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        Ahhh yes the problem is that Hexbear came in and agreed it is racist, and then the racists threw a fit.

        Lmao give it a rest. Calling you a racist isn’t abuse, you just don’t like being called on it and now you’re pissing and whining about it.

        Hexbear is a plague on lemmy, I can’t wait for the day of instance-level blocking

        It’ll be great, you lot will opt out of seeing us, and opt out of cultural opposition to us. Meanwhile the vast majority will not, and without the far right as a constant source of distraction, concern trolling and sealioning the leftist influence will be even higher.

          • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            minor issue

            Casual racism != minor issue

            Denial of racism != minor issue

            Unless you’re a racist

            • DrRatso@lemmy.ml
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              You can strip the argument of all nuance and make all the false equivelances dichotomies you want, but you can fuck right off with it while you are at it, go crawl back to your imaginary arguments in your black and white world, you are clearly not here to discuss anything in good faith. I will engage with hexbear when you offer something of substance besides your adolescent maximalism.

              • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                There isn’t any fucking nuance.

                There is us pointing out something is racist.

                There are racists claiming it is not.

                There are racists claiming that the people calling you racist are being abusive for doing so.

                That’s it. That’s the discussion. And you look pathetic for it. You were on the side of every other word I mentioned earlier too.

              • immuredanchorite [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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                I don’t understand how this was an issue of “lack of nuance” or “black and white” thinking… Either the term is racist or it is not? … Is it disparaging a group of people based on racial/cultural/ethnic stereotypes? Yeah. Is it reinforcing and normalizing those stereotypes and upholding an ideal “normal” that is associated with being part of the dominant group? Yeah. Does it seem petty and pedantic? Racism generally does take on a petty and pedantic character… When you go out of your way to deny these things, you are only doing it in service of upholding racist norms. You don’t have to continue to defend it, you can acknowledge that it could cause a community harm and move on with your life by avoiding the harmful behavior. Changing the way you speak might seem annoying or like an imposition, but if you think that racism is harmful and want to challenge it by being anti-racist, ultimately people have to change the way they think, speak, and behave… but it is a good change. Embrace it.

                • DrRatso@lemmy.ml
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                  On you go with the imaginary argument. I am not with you so I must be against you, right? I do not have and never did have a problem with getting rid of the word.

                  I will reitterate that the only problem I have is with the stinking garbage heap called hexbear.

      • JuneFall [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        Your comment does not belong in this subreddit. It does not add to the topic, if you think comments don’t fit in the community do report them and move on.

        Edit You also are quite a new user to the lemmy-verse from this month (compared to multiple year old users posting to you), which mostly is reducing the quality on communities on one hand and also got quite a few comments deleted. I urge you to read up on nettiquette and change your attitude if you want to be a positive contributing influence to this community.

        • DrRatso@lemmy.ml
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          Right, because hexbear coming in shitting on everyone and calling an entire community racist for unwittingly using a racist term in a context fairly removed from the original meaning is so helpful to discourse. Im only returning blows in kind. And I am so terribly sorry ye ole lemmy wizard, for speaking out of turn. Ill wait so I can speak with the rest of us, younglings.

          • AcidSmiley [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            Nobody has called the entire community racist, the callouts have been exclusively to people like you defending a term that obviously plays with one of the most common racial stereotypes about East Asians. Taking a racist term out of context doesn’t make the term not racist, it only means that a still racist term has gained even wider use.

            • DrRatso@lemmy.ml
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              Again I have personally not once defended the use of the term, I have only ever attacked hexbear code of conduct. I even stated that I am for not using it in a since (mod) removed comment. I thought the term was dumb even before I (like most of this comm) found out about the origins through this thread. The only context in which I have defended it is in this convo and only in the aspect of the response it has gotten from hexbear, which if you don’t feel is entirely disproportionate, we have nothing more to talk about.

    • supert@lemmy.sdfeu.org
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      This is an example of the American cultural imperialism someone else was whining about above. In the UK a f@ggot is a type of food. There are adverts on the telly for it. A removed is a cigarette. Gypsy is not necessarily perjorative (it appears as a category on the census). Not sure what tr*p is, but if it’s tramp, that’s a homeless person. Also, a fanny is ladybits.

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        tr*p

        This is generally a censor of the word “trap”. While it obviously has several non-slur meanings, it is also used as an extremely visceral anti-trans (and in particular, anti-transfem) slur :/

        The implication is that transfem people are “secretly gay men trapping straight men into being attracted to them”. It is associated with simultaneous sexualisation, homophobia, and transphobia >.<. If someone called me that IRL I would be seriously worried for my safety, as that’s often the kind of thing people would say before either raping or killing or injuring a transfem person for “”“threatening”“” their fragile sexuality, then using the trans panic defense.

        The term got it’s start on 4chan, and people used it for femboy characters in anime (who are often poorly translated and may actually be trans in a lot of cases), but the kind of dehumanisation aspect of it means it very very quickly became a viscious anti-trans slur :/

        • supert@lemmy.sdfeu.org
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          I must revise my earlier reply. Watching a documentary about George Michael, it seems it was a current and offensive slur in the UK even decades ago. Apparently my childhood was sheltered from homophobia.

        • supert@lemmy.sdfeu.org
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          I’ve not heard it used so, but I imagine younger folk might use it that way, since we adopt US culture so much.

  • randint@lemm.ee
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    Not saying that this is a bad thing, but it’s kind of amazing how opinions of the public can shift so drastically within a month: https://lemmy.ml/post/2080934. Last month another user posted in the very same !unixporn@lemmy.ml asking whether people consider the term “rice” racist. The majority opinion back then was “if you get offended over a term like this you should take a break from the Internet.”

  • pearsche@lemdro.id
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    til about this, but like, I doubt anyone uses this in a racist way though, far from it.

  • inasaba@lemmy.ml
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    Thank you for making this post. The number of times I’ve seen the term used here lately has been bothering me.

  • SchrodingersPat@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Leaning into the “porn” part of unixporn, we could say we"fluffed" our setup. Because like fluffers, we’re making things bigger an more attractive to show off.