this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Unixporn

Submit screenshots of all your *NIX desktops, themes, and nifty configurations, or submit anything else that will make themers happy. Maybe a server running on an Amiga, or a Thinkpad signed by Bjarne Stroustrup? Show the world how pretty your computer can be!

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Hey, we should all really stop using racist slang to refer to customozation (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 years ago by blashork@hexbear.net to c/unixporn@lemmy.ml
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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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[–] nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Asian here and rice eater here.

Language doesn't work in absolute way, it could change its meaning all the time.

It's better to regain is neutral meaning instead of letting the racist weaponize neutral word.

Also, this mindset is also Western centric, go to Asia and people in Linux and car community simply use the word without any negative connotation.

Edit: By doing this, you're no different from imperial government who tries to make one standard of morality, which in fact further hurts Asian living in Asia. And as Indonesian, I'm hurt with your statement. Let me regain the neutral meaning. Don't speak for us.

[–] panopticon@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ok, Asian here and rice eater here also and I think the right way to respond to racist cliches is with hostility, same way we ought to respond to Nazism and other forms of fascism. if you want to reclaim the word, fine whatever. But you're drawing a false equivalence between westerners trying to self-criticize their use of chauvinistic language, and the imperial governments that enforce that chauvinism in the first place (wtf?)

[–] nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

westerners trying to self-criticize their use of chauvinistic language

That's the problem.

Westerner often force this rules towards everyone.

Like that one time someone got banned for using "nasi goreng" as their username with reasoning "it has similarity with Nazism" despite it's on international group.

Or when Asian English group that usually co-exist within recognition of different culture suddenly has Westerner that policing everything about language. "Oh this is so offensive towards Asian", while no one in group never know or even used the word in negative connotation.

While in reality because SEAsian are multi-language speaker, we just self moderate in case of potential language conflict, like budak in Malay is children, but in Indonesian means slave.

[–] vashti@feddit.uk 0 points 2 years ago

The thing is you aren't the audience. Discussion about anti-Asian racism in English tends to be focused on the experiences of e.g. Asian-American people and on the racist abuse they get from white people.

It's actually that exact kind of self-moderation, surely? "hang on, doesn't this word suck, let's not use it"?

[–] CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago

Absolutely. Do not claim it's racist when language made its meaning neutral.

[–] stuck_in_the_shell@programming.dev 0 points 2 years ago

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.

[–] Juice@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago

I got called out for saying this once. At first I was like "what's racist about rice" but when I googled it everything that came up was an explicitly anti-asian meme.

So yeah the word is being used in the west as a racist term so non Asians should reconsider whether using the term helps or hurts their relationships with others within the communities we frequent. I think vigilance is better than ambivalence.

[–] inasaba@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago

Thank you for making this post. The number of times I've seen the term used here lately has been bothering me.

[–] ntzm@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago

I wasn't aware of this, thank you for posting

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Sry I've been an absent mod here. Would anyone like to help mod this community?

I've also added a no-racist terms rule to the sidebar.