My biggest issue with discussions like this is how people insist that words can't change their meaning or leave their roots behind. How many people knew that "ricer" was racist though? Isn't that a good example of how a (potentially) racist term can leave behind its racist origins? Now, to be clear, I always thought "ricing" referred to tacky cars inspired by the Japanese modding community that were all visuals, no muscle, which means it could be considered mildly racist in that context. However it was my interpretation that they were called ricers because they look interesting but are white, cheap and bland underneath (still racist, but going in the other direction).

How many people didn't think it had any racist origins whatsoever though? How many people thought it was something else? Why are we so hellbent on enforcing the racist, sexist, whateverist history of these terms? It's understandable when someone gets upset over a word that's regularly used within the context of an -ism (like the n-word), but if a word has become so disconnected from its original meaning that no one is getting offended by it, why in gods name are you trying to reassociate it with something offensive!? Let it stay dead. What the fuck is wrong with you? At that point, you're taking a term which lost its status as a slur, and turning it back into a slur. WHYYYY? The only reason I can imagine someone doing something like that is for they either A) want pity points, or B) you're wanting to revive it as a slur under the guise of "social awareness" so you can use it yourself.

Edit: oh yeah, and obligatory "fuck hexbear". Quite honestly I wouldn't be surprised if they want more slurs to hurl because I get the feeling there are a lot of them that probably have exploding heads secondary accounts.

Edit 2: There's also the fact that, from what I've seen, there's some disagreement on where the term originated from. One speculated origin is from "riceburner", which was a derogatory term for Asian cars before they became seen as being high-quality and highly dependable. Another, however, is that it's a portmanteau of "rich" and "racer", referring to someone who has a lot of money but little knowledge when it comes to what actually makes a modded car "good". Either way, it's been genericized to the point where it seems silly to get offended over it, as a "ricer" can be someone of any ethnicity.

This data suggests there's only 20 hexbear subscribers to unixporn (if I'm reading it right), but I'm guessing the influx comes from their members browsing All by 'New Comments'. For me, the word 'brigade' invokes the idea of it being co-ordinated in some way, rather than that there's a lot of them, and the subject matter is close to their hearts.

Anyway, the Community rules have been updated to dis-allow the term, so drama over I suppose.

I always took it to stand for Racing Inspired Cosmetic Enhancement where people spent a bunch of money on a cheap can just to make it look cool without adding any actual functionality.

This puts a whole new spin on the 'riced squash' I see as the grocery, given they're obviously 'ricing' the squash to obtain 'riced' squash.

Could ricing also mean "to render into a rice-like format"? Could the word have a non-cruel meaning?

DID NO ONE ASK WHAT RISOTTO MEANS?

I'm still not even sure what the term means..

They're 100% right (for once… I guess broken clock style 🤦🏻‍♀️). Can't believe some Unix modders are still using that word, I thought we had this discussion a decade ago.

Some context would be useful.

Hate me some hexbear but they’re right. I’ve seen discussions about ricing being a racist term for over a decade and moving away from it seems reasonable.

I've never heard of ricing but come to think of it I have heard of "rice rocket" to describe Kawasaki motor bikes so that's probably a titch racist.

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.