1y ago

Hey, we should all really stop using racist slang to refer to customozation

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.

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568 comments

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):
undefined

instance | count -------------+------- hexbear.net | 205 lemmy.ml | 106 lemm.ee | 61
These are the top 3 instances and their comment counts on any post in lemmy.ml/c/unixporn this month at the time of writing:
undefined

domain | count -------------+------- lemmy.ml | 210 hexbear.net | 210 lemm.ee | 100
You'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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  Again with the lack of reading comprehension. Did I say it was only hexbear users piling on? No. I just pointed out that there are a lot of hexbear users piling on. Your persecution complex is showing.
  I'm not sure where you assumed I"m upset about anything here or that I think there's a conspiracy against me. Hello projection.
  
  Your persecution complex is showing.
  Right back at you. Nobody is "piling on", there's just more people disagreeing with you than agreeing, deal with it baby.
  
  Lmao are you gonna bust out the I'm rubber you're glue next? You lack reading comprehension and you've devolved to throwing insults instead of having a discussion.
  If you can't see all the hexbear users piling onto those that disagree with OP I don't know what to tell you.
  Good luck out there.
  
  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.
  
  Right, I forgot you fools lack reading comprehension skills and the ability to recognize nuance.
  I didn't say there was brigading going on, your comrade brought that up. I simply said just because some users were arriving organically doesn't mean brigading is out of the question. The original point, which continues to be evident, is that there are a ton of hexbear users piling on to anyone that doesn't fall in line with OP. You all seem to conveniently ignore that and straw man into bringing up brigading and hurling insults. You prove my point every time a new one engages. Every. Time.
  The only remotely racist users I've seen here are, unsurprisingly, hexbear users. You're the main ones attempting to nurture a term in a different context to try to get a completely different community to use your preferred racist definition. If you truly were anti-racist I would have expected celebration of the death of a racist term in the car community by way of the unixporn community using it with pride to show off their DEs.
  Instead you cling for dear life onto your racist definition like conservatives do to the fucking electoral college and FPTP. It's really telling.
  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):
  undefined
  
  instance | count -------------+------- hexbear.net | 205 lemmy.ml | 106 lemm.ee | 61
  These are the top 3 instances and their comment counts on any post in lemmy.ml/c/unixporn this month at the time of writing:
  undefined
  
  domain | count -------------+------- lemmy.ml | 210 hexbear.net | 210 lemm.ee | 100
  You'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 🙄
  
  "I didn't say there's any brigading going on, I just said there's some brigading going on - look, this incredibly popular post has more engagement than any of our other posts!"
  The absolute brazen dishonesty you're engaging in the whole way through this thread is disgusting, and why you get piled on to. The fact is that you're pretending a racist term isn't racist (in the same way as calling stealing "jewing" isn't racist, I suppose (just to make sure you understand, it's very racist)), and your only real argument is "all the hexbears are piling in and being mean :(", not some justification for why taking a racist term for improving the look of a car without improving its performance isn't racist when you apply the exact same term, without altering the concept in any way, to computers.
  
  Here, let me help you. My first comment in this post, please show me where I said there's brigading going on. I didn't. And the fact that you read my edit and equated that to me saying there's brigading going on is extremely telling. Again, your comrades brought up brigading, not me.
  You want to talk about brazen dishonesty? Look at the rest of you and yours and how you constantly rephrase what's been said to benefit your own narrative. Disgusting is right. I got piled onto from that very first comment before the edit lol, how revisionist of you to pretend things that came up later in the thread were what caused the thread to happen. And to be clear, no part of what I've said is "hexbears are being mean" or crying about it. That's the straw man each of you have been constructing to try and skirt your own racist tendencies.
  It's interesting that you're equating a word that doesn't refer to a group of people outside of a racist context (rice) with one that explicitly refers to an ethnoreligious group. Do you see how hard you people are working to make the term racist? The argument centers around semantic change and how hexbears are leading the charge to try to proliferate the usage of the term as racist. The concept isn't altered? Please tell me which group is belittled when utilizing it in the unixporn context.
  term for improving the look of a car without improving its performance
  You'll also notice even your own definition independently lacks any racial charge or pejorative meaning whatsoever without you adding it yourself. It's almost as if context matters.
  
  I'm not really interested in the debate about brigading, but more on the data.
  Can this just be retrieved via an API?
  
  I'm not sure if anyone is exposing an API for this. I'm pulling it directly from the database on an instance I have access to. At first I was worried it wasn't accurate for hexbear because it's a much older instance, but they didn't start federating until very recently so it's close enough.
  
  Just because there are some users that stumble upon content semi-organically doesn’t mean brigading and piling on isn’t happening
  That's some next level mental gymnastics to justify why people are disagreeing with you. Look, ricing isn't racist. It's better this way. Let the old meaning die. Let racist inventions be superseded. Don't complain something organic is reminding YOU about some bad meaning associated with a word in the past.
  
  You've given me whiplash. No mental gymnastics involved in casting a wide net.
  The rest of your post seems to agree with me? Did you mean to reply to someone else?
  
  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.
  
  Last I checked unixporn isn't the car community. It's literally a different context. There's zero pejorative tones. It's literally being used with pride, not hate or disdain.

568 comments