When rice/ricing is used in Linux customization, it has nothing to do with the Japanese, Asians, or their cars.

I can see issue if ricing a desktop environment meant "made it look like it was from Asia" or "filled excessively with anime (or other asian thing)" kind of stereotype, but it's not. There is no association with the pejorative meaning, so no problem.

Why are people squabbling over this? This is so silly. Use ricing, don't use it, call it something else, I don't give a shit.