image transcript: caption reads “boys when they’re ricing their arch linux twink pad” over a drawing of the boykisser cat with thigh highs on and a laptop edited in. end transcription.

  • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    Can we please replace the racist slang? I get that there’s not currently a better single word for superficial janky optimization but I’m sure one of y’all is funny enough to come up with one

    • yokonzo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This was already a discussion and it was determined no one cares about the term because barely anyone even knows what it’s roots are or sees it that way, everyone thinks “car modding”. Notably neither did Asian users who have been using the term for decades. this is just tone policing for the sake of it, you’re creating problems where there are none

      • BleatingZombie@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I’m in the comments right now trying to figure out why cheap Japanese cars are in the meme

        What’s the other definition?

        • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          They’re referring to the term “ricing” that is used in the meme. In the car modding world, “ricing” is used as a pejorative to refer to the tricked out anime-wrapped cars, usually driven by Asian dudes or weebs. If a car is wrapped in anime characters and/or egirls, it has been “riced” and is referred to as a “ricer” It’s… Well… It’s not a polite term.

          It comes from the old school rivalry between American muscle cars (which were big and heavy, but had good top speeds so they were popular for drag racing,) and Japanese cars (which tended to favor agility, tight handling, and good acceleration.) At the time, tricked out cars were popular among Japanese car enthusiasts, so the term started getting used by boomers to refer to Japanese people who mod cars. Then younger generations heard it, assumed it was referring to the cars (not the drivers) and it has stuck around as a rude way to refer to heavily modded Asian cars.

          It doesn’t hold the same sort of derogatory connotations in the Unix world, largely because most users aren’t even aware of where it comes from. It just refers to a highly customized Unix setup.

          • yokonzo@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I don’t know where you got that specific definition, but that’s not it. Ricing is a catch all for doing modifications to a car that look bad (e.g. underglow, flashy spoiler, double rear wheels) and is subjective and changes with time and tastes.

            The term you’re thinking of is itasha wraps (痛車, literally “painful car”) which could fall under ricing, but no, whoever told you that’s what that means is wrong.

        • zaph@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          I’m slightly confused by your question but I’m still going to try to answer it. Ricing in the meme gets it’s origins from those same cars so there’s not another definition really it’s just expanded it’s grasp.

      • Mac@mander.xyz
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        9 months ago

        Every single person who has ever slightly been exposed to car culture knows exactly what it is and knows exactly where it came from: hateful, racist boomers making up a derogatory term for Japanese cars.

        • yokonzo@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Clearly that is not true, in fact I’ll give you $100 if you can prove “every single person” into car culture knows that fact, I’ll bet you most car guys in this thread didn’t even know

    • RachelRodent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      I think we have discussed about this before but in my opinion alone, what matters is the context, ricing in tbe linux community obiviously isn’t used in a discriminatory manner or intent, come on

      • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        I haven’t discussed this here before, you must be thinking of someone else. Anyway, in my opinion, since it’s a word explicitly created to make fun of Asian people and Asian cars, like many slurs associating a bunch of different cultures with a staple food, it kinda doesn’t matter what someone’s “intent” is when they use it.

        • RachelRodent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          ok I probably talked about this with someone else before then, yes but I don’t agree with you still. It isn’t really a slur when it is meant as the acronym Race inpired car enchantment or something like that what I am saying is that people aren’t using the slur, they’re using the acronym(even if the word used to mean somethşng different) and the intent very much does matter because they aren’t discriminating against anyone but using a word - albeit with a dubious origin -, that means something radically different now. Language isn’t static.

          • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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            9 months ago

            That acronym was made up way later, and making up some acronym for an existing word it doesn’t magically make it ok or wipe out what it already meant. Sure language isn’t static but it still means that thing.

          • survivalmachine@beehaw.org
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            9 months ago

            acronym Race inpired car enchantment or something like that

            Backronym. It was a racist term in the car community for decades before somebody came up with that in an attempt to whitewash it.

            and the intent very much does matter

            Citation needed, because every single utterance of “redskins” was racist af, even if the majority of the team’s fans never had a racist thought in their heads about native americans.

        • pythonoob
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          9 months ago

          I think slurs refer to people, not objects.

          But anyway, would you consider ‘krauts’ to be a slur too?

          • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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            9 months ago

            I agree slurs refer to people, but if you call a Japanese car a “rice cooker” (which is where this comes from) that’s insulting the people…

            And, yeah, at least originally. “Kraut” is one of those things that really has evolved somewhat, especially through krautrock in the 70s and other things. And whether it’s racist is complex depending on definitions and blah blah blah. But it was definitely 100% coined as a slur.

            • pythonoob
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              9 months ago

              So you consider yanks to be a slur and offensive right?

              Polacks?

              Frenchies?

              • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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                9 months ago

                Are you being for real? You dont understand the difference between calling an Asian person rice, and “Frenchie”? Smh my head

                • pythonoob
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                  9 months ago

                  What I see is someone thinking names for white people aren’t offensive. Are you being for real? Surely you must treat all of these slurs equally right?

                  • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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                    9 months ago

                    First of all, why the fuck would all names for people be equal? That’s insane. Do you think that the n word is equally offensive as those slurs you listed too? Or you just think it’s fine like calling someone Frenchie? Either way doesn’t look good.

                    Secondly this shit is so established there’s a Wikipedia page about it. Just cos you haven’t heard of it doesn’t mean it’s just being made up, there’s no need to go on some anti-woke crusade.

    • Mac@mander.xyz
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      9 months ago

      Yeah bro, agree. “Rice” is super cringe.
      It gives hateful boomer