from fool@discuss.tchncs.de to linux@lemmy.ml on 14 Jan 17:14
https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/28583439
I’d learned about this last week, and this stuff is a bunch of Wikipedia searches so forgive me if I miss anything :]
Similar to git master and whitelist/blacklist having addressed racist origins, I’ve just learned that “ricing” – i.e. way-far-from-default, colorfully souped-up *nix customizations – came from a derogatory word for Asian “riced out” cars.
(click to enlarge spot where I came to learn about this)
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Example in the lemmy.ml/c/linux community.
The linked Wikipedia article doesn’t list *nix ricing specifically, but it’s probably not a far reach – for example, tech’s master-slave came from cars too.
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Now I’m not here to start a debate on whether the term itself is bad. The arguments are done to death and predictable (old thread~hope~ ~I~ ~can~ ~link~ ~here~). Rather, I posit that we could probably invent a new term if we forced it hard enough.
For example, 4chan forcibly invented the use of the ok hand for “white power”, as a collective prank (Wikipedia).
Further, Tumblr invented 'then beg' as an insult response to 'I beg your pardon/to differ'. (click to enlarge)
Based on Pukicho.
So why can’t Lemmy invent something too?
Here are some earlier takes. (click to enlarge for source, but they are listed below anyway)
I surmise it has to be (1) somewhat unique and (2) short and nounable/verbable.
- Customization doesn’t fit – it’s too broad. Changing the wallpaper is a customization – diagonalizing your screen is a rice (term to be replaced…).
- Bespoke doesn’t fit either. That’s for a duct-tape script you hack together.
- Pimping out… is not a good alternative. It preexists^(citation^ ^needed?)^ and has inertia but it’s not any better.
- Souping up… doesn’t roll off the tongue so much. But it’s food-related (and thus not far from “rice”). Though I can’t see myself saying “Yo, check out this epic soup.”
Brainstorming welcome :P
threaded - newest
I removed this because it has nothing to do with linux specifically, and as expected, it brought out a lot of people defending the use of this historically racist term, and /asablackman’ing it.
I’ve reinstated it and removed the offending comments for now.
Also I don’t know why this needs a discussion at all. There’s hundreds of words in english for something that looks good, and you can be more specific about it : snazzy, sleek, cool, streamlined, nifty, retro
In one of which an Asian dude literally says it’s not used as a derogatory anymore. Talk about being offended for others
An stranger on the internet just gave you license to say a historically racist term, how convenient for you. Next they’ll be some /r/asablackman posters saying its okay for you to use the n-word, because it doesn’t bother them.
Should they’ve included a selfie or an id pic? Because when black ppl use that n-word you’re trying to draw parallels with (which, BTW, is still a derogatory towards a person and has no other meanings, as far as I’m aware) nobody gets offended. And, aside from the use of the “r-word”, their comment was a valid opinion on topic asking for that opinion
It’s not like black people using the N-word, it’s like white people using the n-word because a stranger on the internet said it’s ok.
You don’t think them casually dropping a slur might invalidate their opinion on whether a different word is a slur? Fucking LLM-ass logic right there.
The “r-word” in question refers to the being food discussed (although it’s not really a discussion, given we have the correct opinion and “your comment is getting deleted” opinion) in the post, since we’re apparently deleting comments for using it now. Hence the quotation marks.
As for the 1st paragraph, (a) i’m arguing it’s nowhere like using the n-word at all, and (b) it was said by the Asian dude, so I don’t see how so.
Are you telling me that you have so little understanding of slurs and their use that you think people are getting banned for saying using the word rice? You cannot be serious. How dare you think you have the intelligence to hold an opinion.
I know what you’re arguing you fucking dunce, I just told you you’re wrong. There are plenty of slurs that aren’t as bad as the n-word, you’re not allowed to use any of them. And b) doesn’t matter. You don’t use the n-word even if a black person “gives you permission”, because that makes you a fucking racist.
I’m telling you the post explicitly asked about opinions, and the “wrong” ones that used the “r-word” happened to be blocked, and there is a comment from another mod that explicitly tells they’ll remove stuff using that. Although it’s a reasonably short comment that’s easily blocked from view with a medium-sized justice boner, so it’s understandable you’ve missed it.
Although, you’re somewhat right, the meaning of a slur was a bit off in my vocabulary. I’d still argue it isn’t one in context ('cause it neither refers to a person nor is it derogatory in its current form)… However, I’d also like to play along and give you folks another (and, arguably, a more worthy) which hunt target – chinesium. You know, currently a derogatory, currently refers to a particular nation, so…
I’m sure you can find enough examples of the word rice, ricing, and ricer to put two and two together and realise the “r-word” isn’t what got them blocked.
No it doesn’t, because that hasn’t happened.
Are you really not able to put together how transferring a term used to deride body modifications (using ethnic associations) to UI modifications is derogatory? Do you think it magically lost context somewhere along the way, the history of the term just disappearing into the aether?
Stop trying to worm out of this you wretched little shit. Defend using that on the site and you’ll also get your comments removed, but we’re talking about your racism right now.
Allrighty, so here’s the comment: lemmy.ml/comment/16077970 Granted, not exactly how I phrased it at times, but the gist still stands.
Citation needed, as they say. I only saw car bodies being modded.
Bold of you to assume I have smth against groups of ppl based on their race because I’m not into your* guilt complex about your* ancestors inventing X phrases and abusing Y groups of ppl.
Not trying to “worm out”, and still stand on the form being inferior to the meaning; just pointing out a commonly used coinword with the exact meaning ppl are looking for, 'cause at this point I’m inclined to see the world freeze.
* not necessarily yours in particular, just an assumption you’re from the US
Yeah, no shit buddy, and your “gist” can be pretty forcibly rejected by reading these, which use some form of the term without defending it: hexbear.net/comment/5821220 hexbear.net/comment/5819913 hexbear.net/comment/5821145 hexbear.net/comment/5819994
So it’s not that you have anything against asian people, you just think it’s ok to use a term that origtinated in saying japanese people eat so much rice they even run their cars on it. Uh huh. Would you defend the N-word on the basis that it’s a commonly used word and you don’t understand why it’s so bad?
Extremely unsafe assumption, but newsflash - your ancestors don’t need to be the specific ones who invented a racism for it to be racist to act like them. If you copy someone else’s racism you are still the one being racist. You’ve been told multiple times by multiple people that the term is racist, but you’re arguing it’s not racist because you don’t know how it’s racist. Have you maybe considered you’re just not very smart and need to study racism a bit more? Maybe learn what this whole “microaggression” thing people keep talking about it?
So what exactly? It’s just a stereotype. A stereotypical Russian (that’s where I’m from) would be a gopnik babooshka in abibas riding a bear while playing a balalayka and drinking vodka… And guess what? We find it funny. Well, maybe except babooshkas: many find it weird you stress the “oo” syllable instead of the 1st ‘a’. It’d be the same with black guys and rap music or Texans and guns.
If it originated as a stereotype, stopped being used offensively several decades ago, and was then repurposed into being a praise of sorts.
I need you to be honest - do you not know what stereotypes are, or do you not know what racism is? Stereotyping is one of the conceptual parts of racism, so saying it’s not racist because it’s a stereotype is like saying pizza isn’t Italian because it’s from Naples.
Could you give me sources for when this happened for “ricing” and “ricer”? Because there are a lot of people in this thread telling you that it’s still offensive, and I’m pretty sure they know a little bit more than you about racism.
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I think the difference is that with the n-word both the targets of the insult and the non-targets recognize it as an insult. Meanwhile considering the rice-word, both parties either only know the current-day meaning or think that the insult and the description of someone making their car look (but not function) like a race car are 2 different terms with different origin.
You also seem to imply that the asian poster might have just been a white person trying to prove their point. Well here is a video of a chinese-american using it (and not as some kind of “protest slur” or what’s the term for rappers using the n-word in their songs) inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=68sTT4mFTnA
I agree that using terms with racist origin is bad but I think that this term outside of the linux circles cannot be racist because nobody even knows it was racist at some point. edit: Obviously it should stop being used inside the linux circles because a) people here are more likely to read the wikipedia article than watch hours of automotive video content and b) the term does not even make sense for linux desktops because it just means “to make your desktop look cool”. There aren’t cosmetic linux desktop mods that make the computer look fast or like supercomputer or whatever.
I saw a BlackPeopleTwitter post yesterday where one local (so, black) user gave another Asian user a coveted “invite to the cookout” for posting some decently well meaning kinda intersectionalist words, and they ATE THE FORMER USER ALIVE, saying paraphrased obviously “we give this privelage out way too readily to people who evidence the bare minimum decency”. Some people want to gel so bad they jump the gun and so you can’t assume one minority giving you a privelage related to their community stands for all in the community. The paradox of the N-pass.
The paradox of the n-word pass is similar to the paradox of the daoist leader; if you were of good enough character (as an outsider/Bourgeoisie) to warrant the privilege of leadership/cookout, then you’d be wise enough to never want to use them.
<img alt="fidel-salute" src="https://hexbear.net/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hexbear.net%2Fpictrs%2Fimage%2F9a5763af-1614-43e4-ac08-6099f40c0c55.png">
Oh god, this stuff is so tiring.
Customizing the shit out of
I like this one.
Interface tailoring, desktop tapestry, jamming all up in my pazaaz.
I’m shreking up my arch install rn
I’ve Farquaad my network stack!
You’re compensating for something with your network stack?
Sometimes, I Miles Edward O’Brien my VM GPU passthrough.
Zhush/zhoosh could work - I don’t think the word is commonly used enough that it would get confusing.
@fool wait, how is this racist?
The old thread about it covers both sides of the coin.
Basically, “ricing” insulted weird Asian car customizations -> “ricing” became a more generic “weird” customization term (this is the most famous transitive example I can think of) -> ricing’s origin was forgotten by a decent amount of people. (I mentioned it in the first spoilered text)
But I’d like to keep the focus on yoloing a term out of nowhere :D
@fool so it's racist because we of Asian descent tend to eat rice? Are other Asians asking automobile enthusiasts not to use this or is it basic white girl stuff?
Decked out? Cranked?
I thought about “decked out”, though then people would say “look at my deck”, potentially creating ambiguity between card games and spiffy desktops.
I mean there is an overlap between Linux users and those who play card games
I’d like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as card games, is in fact, GNU/card games, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus card games. 😉
And extra ambiguity for people talking about polishing their deck while also pronouncing it as dick>
Isn’t it the same as tuning?
Although it’s unclear what tuning is because it depends on who says it:
Yet for all its faults, I believe that’s the closest word to ricing you’ll find that is universally understood, neutral and isn’t rendered hopelessly bland and meaningless by the process of political correctness newspeak.
a different comment was saying ricing has a sense of being overdone. So with this I was thinking of “overtuning.” I think it fits more as a hobbyist term than a pragmatic one.
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Can’t rice our Linux distros or cars because of woke
Jokes aside, RICE means “Race-inspired cosmetic enhancement” apparently
Creating a backronym for a term doesn’t absolve it of its racist roots.
You just sent me a wikipedia article about a car on a thread about linux customisation
Yes, because that is origin of the term. It came from Japanese motorcycle & car customization.
How is the term “racist” if it specifically refers to Japanese cars, not Japanese drivers
Maybe call it a ‘ride’? It would still be a car reference, think about how people talk about cars as their ‘rides’. At least to my understanding, calling a car a ‘ride’ also implies some level of the car being special. ‘ride’ is also only 4 letters, and isn’t any harder to type, some of the other comments have really long terms which are a bit annoying to type.
On the negative side it is also 1 letter away from ‘rice’, so that might not be ideal.
eye-rolling
Dots! <img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/3be768e4-a594-44a2-95d8-5cfc97bb7b85.jpeg">
Like dotfiles. Where most of the customizing happens.
I love the idea, it covers most instances of extreme customization in Linux.
Pixel polishing. A term we use for frontend code at work (all backend developers).
Can’t people refer to it as their personalized setups? Or is that too hard to write?
Yeah but that’s missing the flair required by people who spend their evenings adjusting the radial blur on the window borders.
I have yet to see a personalized setup with blurred window borders xD
Ricing isn’t exactly the same as personalized though.
Ricing when it comes to cars is putting on a giant wing and a huge muffler on a Honda Civic.
Ricing in the Gentoo community is turning on every compiler optimization flag for the main portage config file without knowing what they’re doing, potentially actually de-optimizing your setup.
There’s an element of “overdone” involved usually whenever someone is called a ricer.
To personalize your setup, is to deviate from the default config to better match your preferences - whatever those may be, however over the top those may be.
That doesn’t imply any optimization, unless it’s what you personally prefer.
Exactly my point. Most of us customize our setup one way or another, usually. Few of us are ricers in the traditional sense.
Noodles - it’s a mess of dotfiles
I assume you’re joking - this is just a different food/culture/race association.
The idea of suggesting the word “noodles” doesn’t come from a racial point-of-view. I’m using “noodles” to describe the mess of dotfiles, which is like saying “spaghetti code” for poorly written code.
I guess you can argue it has a race association as the only reason we are coming up with a new word is because the old word is racist.
Some people just want to be offended
How about “pasta” then? That way it’s explicitly Italian instead. Or casserole? That actually kind of works, it’s a bunch of parts you mix together and bake to get something cool at the end.
what’s the association of noodles?
Pocking
Pocked up
I.e. peacocking, making it awesome and flashy and sharing with others
Quick reach a consensus before the yungins start posting rizzed out setups
I’ve always used decked regarding to it.
Don’t worry about it, nobody says that any more. It died out with Gentoo.
No, Gentoo is alive! I can catch up to upstream Firefox’s LTO+Clang+PGO optimizations and use my own version of Debian alternatives and save 3MB by removing iso9660 support from REFind!
It seems pretty alive to me though. 5/25 of the month-top-posts in r/unixporn have it in the title, and I’m sure more are present in the comments. And a lot of YT videos on it still mention it.
Oooh so I’m not the only one who uses (used) refind with Gentoo!
Maybe we shouldn’t invent new terms for races?
We need to make it offensive to white people instead. So colonising.
i don’t think we ought to be implying that colonization is cool.
“Waltzing”. cool people dance to 3:3
imo it’s not much more offensive than the term ricing but meh, just a bad joke
rizzing?
Saw the
.dedomain and my first thought was this was about using a potato ricer to make spätzle. I may not be normal.maybe something derived from dekotora? it has most of the same associations as the term we’re looking to replace while not having racist or pejorative origins. deko?
This is a tough one, because to me “ricing” or “riced out” carries additional negative undertones (racism aside). I have always heard it used in a way implying that it was referencing enhancements done in a cheap or gaudy/classless way. Think of the most Razer-like LED adorned gaming PC setup, that could have easily been described as being “riced up”.
I think the phrase “decked out” works OK, and seems to also lack the negative connotation, which may or not be in line with the goal here.
Also, seeing your example ideas you shot down, I am not sure you full understand “souping up” phrase. The term “souped up” has been in use for over a century and I still hear people use it pretty frequently. It is generally meant to imply something has been made faster or more powerful, frequently with cars, and probably why some people argue it is a shortened version of supercharged. I agree that it probably isn’t a good fit here, but not being of how it sounds.
Is “ricing” not originally related to customised cars from street racing or something? I personally don’t see an issue with it.
The activity itself is quite good for making people aware of how a desktop linux OS is working but doing it excessively is a bit silly so makes sense for jt to have a silly name.
From what I understand its origin in street racing was because japanese drivers (specifically? might have been Asian more generally) were souping up cars to look pretty but still not run great. I’m hazy on the details and my google-fu is failing me - I wish I had a more precise answer but overall I recall being bummed out at how even the origins of the term weren’t as clean as I had hoped.
The term wasn’t about Japanese drivers, it was about Japanese cars. They were called “rice burners” as in they were fueled by rice, not gasoline. I guess that was someone’s joke that became wide spread.
You’re right that it was sort of derogatory to refer to cars that had all their customization on things like giant exhausts, huge wheels, neon lights, rather than performance improvements.
I’ve never heard the term used to refer to the ethnicity of the driver, just the ethnicity of the car, so I don’t think it’s racist, shrug.
Yeah as someone that was in the car scene during that era, I can’t recall a single time it was used to refer to a person. It was all about the car and its mods - and even then, it was used to describe any car, Asian or other, that was overdone or, often, just not to the taste of the viewer. One time since described my user of a Sony radio as “rice” because they were supposedly not reliable. I never had any issues, but that was their reaction.
I understand why people might consider it racist, and I’m not a fan of the term because of that, and I’d prefer something better. But I do not believe racism was the intent when I saw it used.
It is not, as I learned 18d ago lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/12165688
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_burner
Spice/spiced could work. But it’s still an allusion, not sure if that defeats the point.
Which, outside of specific contexts where you’re already confident someone is a WN, was quickly forgotten and never really took off. It’s not a great example of a social shift.
I’m calling it giving the dirstro top surgery from now on
This will and probably has got a bunch of flak but I’m with you. There’s nothing wrong with recognising when we can pick a better term for something we enjoy.
Like, I get why people use “-porn” as a suffix and it isn’t offensive to me but I still won’t use that in a workplace. It’d be cool if someone thought of a better neologism!
-gasm!
jk I don’t have any better ideas
…modding?
The same car mod term in the 50s was ‘hotrodding’.
I thought hard on this (I just like naming things). I came up with gemming. Graphical Environment Management. Unixgems.
It sorta works because customizing your environment is sort of like putting the finishing gems on it.
I think you might win.
oh hey, i’m in that screenshot!
So Fetch