rulecist (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by to c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone
 

Can't believe I had to have this conversation again today, with someone who should know better. You can't just un-racist a word because it makes you feel bad man.

Edit to add more context:

Rice burner is a pejorative term originally applied to Japanese motorcycles and which later expanded to include Japanese cars or any East Asian-made vehicles. Variations include rice rocket, referring most often to Japanese superbikes, rice machine, rice grinder or simply ricer.

Riced out is an adjective denigrating a badly customized sports car, "usually with oversized or ill-matched exterior appointments". Rice boy is a US derogatory term for the driver or builder of an import-car hot rod. The terms may disparage cars or car enthusiasts as imposters or wanna-bes, using cheap modifications to imitate the appearance of high performance.

The term is often defined as offensive or racist stereotyping. In some cases, users of the term assert that it is not offensive or racist, or else treat the term as a humorous, mild insult rather than a racial slur.

Source.

I'd like you to read this from a guy who's father is from the Philippines. His mother is American. Then have a good think about it. Actually think about it for a day or so.

Palting: (reenlist forums)

*When you call a car a "ricer", you are saying that it is not a nice car, possibly even an atrocious car. I don't believe you will ever hear a statement like "Look at that gorgeous ricer!!" So, in response to the question, is it derogatory, the answer is that the term ricer is most definitely derogatory.

The question then becomes, is it racist? The term "ricer" was coined to denote the cars that were made in Japan or Korea that were subsequently modded and are obnoxious to the observer. You can ask 100 people what car brand comes to mind when you say "ricer" and 100 of them will come up with an Asian brand. Ask those same 100 people what country or race comes to mind, and 100 will say some Asian country. We can safely say that "ricer" would indicate the Asian culture where rice is the staple food. We can define a term racist if the term pertaining to a race or a race's cultural character is considered derogatory. Therefore, the term ricer is most definitely racist.

If, lets say, one of the African nations built a car, would you call it a "******"? The term "ricer" most definitely belongs in the same category as ******, slant-eyes, gook and what have you. Shame on anyone who uses the term and who does not realise it is very definitely racist.

My mother is from the USA, my father is from the Philippines. I was born and raised in the Philippines. I am a Filipino. I am not a "halfer", nor "mestizo", nor anything other than a Filipino national who chose to reside in the US as an American citizen.*

Source.

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[–] 57 points 10 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 57 points 10 months ago* (4 children)

    Some people believe that labelling certain words as dirty because they have prejudicial or offensive connotations in a completely unrelated context is effective activism, passing judgement to feel like they're doing something.

    One such word is "ricing". It comes from "rice burner", which is a pejorative term referring to East Asian cars and motorcycles. The modern usage has nothing to do with cars or ethnicity.

    On a related note, the word "queer" has a similar history.

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  • [–] [S] 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child)

    I'd also like to point out that Queer has been reclaimed by Queer people. Whereas a bunch of, mostly white, Linux users have "reclaimed" it. But, in the context with my friend today, it was the car modification usage ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Right so that offensive term is fine but this other offensive term is still super bad, actually.

    I have absolutely no idea what anything in this post is about but it seems to me like a majority of people who use the term use it because that's what it was called when they were learning about... Whatever it is that it's referring to. Not because they're racist.

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  • [–] [S] 14 points 10 months ago

    I'm a queer person, I get to use that term. As well, collectively, queer people have decided that it's a good umbrella term for our community. If someone decided to use it pejoratively, that still wouldn't be okay.

    When referencing cars, it is being used as a pejorative though, so that seems pretty clear cut.

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    [–] 49 points 10 months ago (30 children)

    It started out as a pejorative (like a cheap car with cheap mods) but has become a positive term associated with customization and a respect for effort involved regardless of financial resources (sometimes cheaper being more impressive).

    So uh... Nah I'm gonna keep saying that. You do you.

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    [–] 36 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Thank you. I'm Asian and it is honestly a bit maddening when I get white-splained as to why the term isn't racist towards Asians.

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  • [–] 32 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    I agree with the overall message here; there's definitely better words for customisation of a Window Manager/Desktop Environment.

    I can't agree that everyone using that term is racist though. I doubt that everyone who uses it is doing so to discriminate or abuse another race. As proven by this thread, the history of that word isn't exactly common knowledge in the spaces people are using it.

    "bigot" might be a better term to describe people that know the history of the word and actively refuse to change their ways. It feels like throwing "racist" on here where it doesn't exactly apply sort of dampens the impact of the word. But that's just me.

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  • [–] [S] 19 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    The people that now know the meaning, but are trying to argue that it doesn't matter, are no longer ignorant, and therefore don't have an excuse.

    Another example of this is that I grew up with the term "gyped" meaning to have been taken advantage of when making a deal. When I learnt that it was a racist term that denigrates Romani/Traveller peoples, I stopped using it. If I'd continued too, then that would have made me racist :)

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    The people that now know the meaning, but are trying to argue that it doesn't matter, are no longer ignorant, and therefore don't have an excuse.

    I agree, but you're meme implies that using the term at all makes you racist

    The equivalent of this meme would be someone calling you a racist the very first time you ever used the term "gyped". You yourself stated you didn't know that term had racist history, so how could you have been racist?

    It's a different situation when someone has knowledge of history and then goes on to use the term. That's textbook bigotry and I would agree that's also racsim, but you're casting a much wider net with this meme encompassing everyone who uses the term knowledgable or not

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago

    You can be part of systemic racism and not know it. It still affects the other person even if you didn't intend it to.

    We live in a society. It's not a personal failing if you were racist and didn't know it. But I think it is a responsibility to try and change for the better, just like in all aspects of life.

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    [–] 19 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements. That's what rice has always meant to me, and as far as I know everyone around me. You can rice an American car and you can rice a German car just as much as you can rice a Japanese car.

    I think this kind of linguistic prescriptivism is one of many things wrong with modern anti-racism movements. It's such a non-issue.

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    [–] 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child)

    Oh, I had only ever heard this term in the context of Linux desktop customization. Like in the context of superfluous over the top additions that look pretty but ultimately do not add anything to a system and may to some extent degrade performance.

    I dont know why I never connected it with the car scene or with racist attitudes. I'm ashamed to say I think I've used the term myself once or twice. Thanks for sharing an explanation of the history of this evidently very racist term, I imagine there are others like myself who have failed to make that connection.

    Idk why its so hard to just say "setup". I'm not sure that a use case this particular warrants its own terminology.

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    [–] 16 points 9 months ago (10 children)

    Calling the term "rice" in connection to focusing on aesthetics over preformance racist just seems insane to me. There are objectly racist uses of the word rice to harm Asians. However when 99% of the community never even correlated this useage of the word to anything derogatory twords asians, and even use it positivly when someone genuinely likes JDM or overbuilt cars, the word stops being racist

    You cant claim racist undertones to a word when people don't corelate that word whatsoever to anything derogatory twords Asians. The modern use of the word spoke about a car that looked like a racecar but didn't have the preformance of one, making it "ugly", and then branched to become a positive term when talking about putting lots of efforts into the aesthetic of something

    The evolution of the word is not a moral failing but a redirection from a derogatory borderline slur to a word that captures the idea of "looks over preformance"

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    [–] 15 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    I feel like a lot of people here need to stop taking this information so damn personally. You didn't know, great, that means you're not racist. Now you do know. So just... Stop? That's it. OP wasn't even a dick about it.

    Personally, I'm grateful when I get a heads up that certain terms are racist, so thank you OP!

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    [–] 14 points 10 months ago (9 children)

    What's your preferred term? "Linux desktop customization" is a bit of a mouthful.

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    [–] 14 points 10 months ago (13 children)

    "Rice" as a food or plant, that's fine. "Rice" as a word for a group of people, not really

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  • [–] 14 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate.

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    [–] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I appreciate the history lesson. I was always really confused by the term, but just accepted it as a silly random easy to remember word.

    I’d prefer if it wasn’t hidden in the comments tho. Presenting it this way is very much inviting conflict, considering most people have no clue.

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    [–] 13 points 10 months ago (1 child)
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    [+] 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)
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    [–] 11 points 10 months ago

    It’s a racist term, but a lot of people simply don’t know that. How I react depends on their general attitude.

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago

    But that's how I remember to Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate injuries

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    hewwoo, so uhm what is a more apropriate thing to call my vewy pwetty laptop ui setup?

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