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.
100% agree!!
I’ve never used the term and the first time I’ve heard about it even without knowing the origins/meaning it already was clear to be a pejorative term.
The excuse the mods in the old r/unixporn subreddit was that the term was broadly accepted by the community.
Well guess what we are not reddit and one of the reasons I left reddit was because I was tired of being in communities like that. We can do better, let’s shape our communities with the right values and not just carry on a legacy that should’ve died with reddit itself.
Huh, I was under the impression it was an acronym for Racing Inspired Cosmetic Enhancement or something along the lines of that. Parts that make the car look like a racecar but don’t actually help it perform any different.
It could totally be a backronym that was generated after it’s initial use though.
What if it wasn’t racist?
Asian American here. It’s racist. It offends me because it is racist, and has always been racist.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Sheesh, there sure are a lot of hexbear users here piling onto anybody with a different opinion
Edit: I went ahead and queried the lemmy database from a federated instance I have access to.
These are the top 3 instances commenting in this specific post at the time of writing (2023-08-25 08:02 UTC):
instance | count -------------+------- hexbear.net | 205 lemmy.ml | 106 lemm.ee | 61These are the top 3 instances and their comment counts on any post in lemmy.ml/c/unixporn this month at the time of writing:
domain | count -------------+------- lemmy.ml | 210 hexbear.net | 210 lemm.ee | 100You’re reading that right, hexbear has a whopping FIVE comments in this community that are not part of this post.
For the curious, those 5 comments at the time of writing are:
- https://hexbear.net/comment/3722672
- https://hexbear.net/comment/3749006
- https://hexbear.net/comment/3722165
- https://hexbear.net/comment/3722091
- https://hexbear.net/comment/3790117
One of which is especially hilarious as we see a hexbear user that’s been railing on people in this post using the very term they’re condemning here. Strong convictions? Perhaps bandwagoning the hexbear teet? Who knows. Definitely not suspicious 🙄
Those different opinions being… using racist terms? Just to get that straightened up
Look ma, another one! Do you all take shifts on duty watching this thread?
Different opinions being challenging your collective definition of the word being inherently racist. You can hem and haw all you want but meanings can change over time. If it can start being used racially at one point it can surely stop at another.
NEW POSTER REPORTING FOR DUTY!do you ‘‘different-opinion-havers’’ also take shifts whenever there’s a racist term to defend?
Why are you stirring up shit about a word that a majority of users associate with Linux modding? What number of people exactly know the old meaning? Is your teaching the people that it’s a racist word help anyway?
because it’s racist. learn to take mild criticism and adjust behavior. it’s not hard and it’s a basic part of living with other people.
They’re not the only ones calling y’all out. Stop defending using racist terms.
Y’all need to learn to understand context. Someone born in 1988 with 88 tattooed on them is not inherently racist. Someone with 88 tattooed right under their swastika tat is racist.
I don’t have time to run every term through the book of hidden meanings for racists that you people seem to have. It’s not racist in this context and the only ones trying to make it that way are those like you. Let it die.
Okay but this is literally the racist usage of the word.
Look ma, another one! Do you all take shifts on duty watching this thread?
This is my only comment in this thread. I clicked on this post because it showed up in my feed, simple as. Everyone who talks about hexbear brigading, piling on, or “taking shifts” doesn’t understand how federation works. Hexbear has been a highly active website with a large userbase for years now, so I don’t know what you would you expect to happen when a large discussion-based website shows content… the people on that website are going to discuss that content.
meanings can change over time. If it can start being used racially at one point it can surely stop at another.
This is true. But the group of people who get to decide whether or not something is racist is the group that is the target of that racism. White people don’t get to decide the n-word is no longer racist. Hetero people don’t get to decide the 3-letter f-word isn’t homophobic. And no individual gets to decide because it’s a cultural issue. Obviously meanings of words change and evolve, but they do so organically, and trying to force a racist term into regular usage and then say “it’s not racist anymore because I wasn’t intending to use it that way” is itself some really racist shit.
Everyone who talks about hexbear brigading, piling on, or “taking shifts” doesn’t understand how federation works.
Just because there are some users that stumble upon content semi-organically doesn’t mean brigading and piling on isn’t happening. I would hope you guys aren’t actually taking shifts. Hello hyperbole. And none of that indicates someone doesn’t understand how federation works, are you sure you understand how it works?
the group of people who get to decide whether or not something is racist is the group that is the target of that racism
They’re also the group that gets to decide if they’re offended/if something qualifies as racist toward them. You’ll notice OP never indicated if they were part of this group, and by them recently learning the roots of the term as it relates to the car scene I’d guess they’re not. Hello virtue signaling.
Hetero people don’t get to decide the 3-letter f-word isn’t homophobic
When it relates to homosexuality, I agree. When in another context, like… oh say British slang, it’s not at all. Context matters, that’s the whole point here.
trying to force a racist term into regular usage … is itself some really racist shit
I’m not going to concede your assertion that ricing in this context is racist. Nobody is forcing anything, ricing in this context has been a non racial term for as long as I’ve seen it used to describe customizing DEs. This is what something changing organically looks like. Unless you can point me to a source showing the term as it relates to linux was intentionally used to try to dull the racist origins in the car world you can go sit with the other hexbear virtue signalers in this post.
Yes, there must be brigading going on, it’s not like there’s some sort of “front page” for federated instances that just anyone can browse, where active discussions like this would be promoted over less active content.
🥱 read your shift change notes. The line you’re taking has already been quashed.
Been quashed? You’re claiming that users could only semi-organically stumble upon this post, when your continual engagement has kept it at a healthy position in the active feed for the past 2 days. If it weren’t for your insistence on being racist none of us would have seen the post at all.
Just because there are some users that stumble upon content semi-organically doesn’t mean brigading and piling on isn’t happening.
You have any proof of this or are you just assuming that happens because you can’t fathom that many people actually disagreeing with you?
You’ll notice your comrade is the one that mentioned brigading. I only said there were a lot of hexbear users piling onto people that disagree with OP, which is obvious reading through the post. I can’t hold your hand on that though, if you don’t possess the reading comprehension to see that that’s on you.
You’re obnoxious. Hexbear is one of the largest instances, comparable to lemmy.ml which is where this was posted. There are also users from lemmy.ml and other instances agreeing with OP.
You’re just a huge fucking baby that thinks encountering lots of opposing opinions must be some grand conspiracy against you.
Discussions like this always bring me back to one thing…can a word itself be racist? Is it racist to use a word if it’s not being said with racist intent? It’s reminiscent of the gimp debacle…if a words use isn’t intended to offend it’s honestly beyond me how anyone could find it offensive. Are we supposed to ban every single word that has the slightest history of being used in an offensive fashion? Feel like we’d have a really long list if we did that.
The hexbear squad is really brigading the fuck out of this thread.
This thread has 400 comments. It’s on everyone’s feed who federated with lemmy.ml
thread appears on our feeds. we comment on it.
i understand it feels bad to have your beliefs questioned, but that’s not brigading, it’s simply how these websites work
Instance has comparatively high and active userbase with a very high percentage of Linux users
Is this brigading?
Instance has comparatively high and active userbase with a very high percentage of Linux users
That may be true, but your instance doesn’t have a very high percentage of engagement in this community outside of this post. Copying from an older comment of mine:
These are the top 3 instances commenting in this specific post at the time of writing (2023-08-25 08:02 UTC):
instance | count -------------+------- hexbear.net | 205 lemmy.ml | 106 lemm.ee | 61These are the top 3 instances and their comment counts on any post in lemmy.ml/c/unixporn this month at the time of writing:
domain | count -------------+------- lemmy.ml | 210 hexbear.net | 210 lemm.ee | 100You’re reading that right, hexbear has a whopping FIVE comments in this community that are not part of this post.
One of those 5 is a user participating in the hexbear brigade in this thread that commented previously said rices were inspiring. But go ahead and tell me all those users are pillars of the linux community. Which bad faith argument will you use next?
Inb4 bRIgaDIng HAs To be ORGaniZed And we’re NoT; even though an acceptable use of the term is also when a particular group floods another community’s space that they don’t normally participate in. I know you lot have trouble grasping a term can have multiple definitions, so don’t hurt yourself champ.
That’s great and all, but this is a federated comm, it appeared on my home page under active. I don’t know if it matters if I personally shared my XMonad config and custom volume widget or commented on yet another custom tiling wm. I always exclusively lurked on the subreddit. I lurk on this one too. Discussion isn’t usually that insightful besides “wow!” and “theme?”.
This time, there was actual discussion and I decided to join in. Much more interesting than the 900th i3 gaps with an 18 pixel gap and 15 lines of code visible in the terminal.
This is a .ml post… by one of us…
Who the fuck do you think you are saying we are not part of the .ml community?
We were here before you and we will be here after you’re purged with the rest of the libs.
What? You know hexbear isn’t lemmy.ml… right?? Your instance has 22 users subscribed to lemmy.ml/c/unixporn. You’ll notice I didn’t say you’re not part of whatever .ml community you’re talking about (although hilarious if you’re actually Mali gov.) I’m saying your instance is not an active participant in this unixporn community outside of this post. Also probably pretty safe to bet you’re not actually part of whatever ml community you’re imagining.
Another not so clever shift by you fools to unsuccessfully change what I’ve said.
We were here before you and we will be here after you’re purged with the rest of the libs.
Are you the reason your comrades keep questioning knowledge on federation? Your instance didn’t federate until earlier this month. It’s literally impossible for your collective “we” to have been here before anyone with an account older than that, of which there are plenty.
To spell it out for you. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Your instance as a whole does not engage with lemmy.ml/c/unixporn outside of this post. Be more mad though, it’s fun dismantling you all one by one. Maybe just stick to your safe space echo chamber 👍
Eat shit.
Yeah I’ll accept your surrender as well. Back to your little safe space now, skip to it.
You are literally crying about us being in your safe space, nerd.
there is no such thing as “brigading” in federation. it is just people commenting you don’t agree with
rent free
Brigading the fuck out of our comrade’s thread…?
We can’t defend ourselves when called out or support each other outside of hexbear.net without being called out for brigrading.
Ya all losing your minds.
400 comments total is rookie numbers. You should check out the news posts involving either Russia, China, or Taiwan. Or check out this post where the admins of lemm.ee asked for the users’ opinions of whether to defederate from hexbear.net. There are 1884 comments. (There was once more than 1900 comments, but I guess the mods removed some.)
cry harder comprador
Just in case you didn’t know, your comment along with the other replies are a perfect example of brigading.
lmao the absolute condescension
I was participating in this thread before you, finding it on my all/active feed
go back to reddit if you want to whine about brigading
Why does 50% of hexbears tell people they don’t like to go back to reddit? I am never going back.
because brigades are a reddit thing but go off
sorry let me rephrase that in a way you’ll understand
“Just in case you didn’t know, your reply along with your other comments are a perfect example of having no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.”
too much discussion on your discussion platform?
China, or Taiwan
Yes, I listed Taiwan separately from China.
Lol now you just trolling.
they’re a so-called taiwanese comprador you can pay them no mind
now you’re trolling too
no, you are literally a colonial comprador
hope that clears it up
Noooooo don’t comment on our public post on social media that we purposely allowed you to comment on
This is not a word made to be racist, but stolen to be one in the eyes of a few.
The mare fact that you stop using the term rice, because “it’s racist” implies that you’re being one, by saying the racists are right about using the term in a racial and derogatory way. Instead of using the word normally, as has always been here.
If tomorrow greetings becomes racist, because it’s discovered that in their origins were racists the ones who greeted themselves, will you stop greeting people?
Im pretty tired of seeing this stupid propaganda spread everywere and everyone celebrating it.
You will never be morally superior. You really are not helping any one, you have no altruist intentions, you have no repercussion on reality. You are an attention seeker twisted by social media and social engineering into a mockery of a sane person’s mind.
Thank you for making this post. The number of times I’ve seen the term used here lately has been bothering me.
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.
new world vocabulary.
lmao
Not sure I understand the joke?
That’s a good point. What do you use instead?
Probably mayo or some shit like that.
oh look, it’s a whiny little cracker! that puts your racism elsewhere in the thread in context
okay
“Polished,” “tweaked,” or if we want to reclaim a term from the crafters, “bedazzled.”
No.
I’m going to continue using it.
bravely being a racist in line with social norms, our hero!
TIL the origin of the word.
But I am confused. Anyone offended for using the word?
When repos changed to main from master, I got problems.
People are hypersensitive over these words now.
I’m Asian American. I’m offended by this word. In my experience, it has always been a racist perjorative every time it’s been used.
Like you mentioned in your other comment, you don’t have the American racial experiences with how this is used to understand why this hurts me, so I’d like to clarify that it does.
No Asians are.
This is more about power and control than racism.
One of the top-rated replies so far is an Asian who expresses they are offended, so that can’t be right.
What power and control does this even give someone?
Maybe a pretty popular food should not be used as a racist slang. You barking up the wrong tree bud
