this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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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 1 year 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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[–] Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I grew up in a good community in the US, and never really knew any racism. Experiencing real racism for the first time after I moved away is still one of the most painful experiences in my life.

Imagine that you're out celebrating a national holiday with friends and family, happy and content, except that around you there are hundreds of people screaming and jeering that independence day is for Americans, and you should go home. But you are home. You were born within this state even, just up this same river you're all sharing together right now. This is a real thing I experienced in parts of rural America.

You can call me oversensitive to racism, and I'd agree that I can be hyperaware of it. But it's a response to the deep trauma that even just a few experiences with racism has caused me. I just want to live peacefully in the country I was born, but that's not possible if the people around me hate my very presence in their midst.

[–] tun@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am sorry that you have to endure such bad experience. I will have to endure if I were in your place.

Someone pointed out that I have a racist mind. May be I might have.

But I wanted to know was if I say I rice my DE the reader of my sentence got offended or not. The answer is yes, they are.

I thought I used the word as Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhanced. I didn't directed the sentence specifically to Asian users. Also rice word is in my opinion not a racist slang. Malcolm Gladwell book Outliers has a chapter relating rice and we eat rice everyday. The rice word has more good associations to me.

Also most of the cars in my counties are Asian made (and Toyota is prestigious for JIT manufacturing). Again "ricing a car" word do not appear racist to me.

Same thing with the master word. We use the master word for other things. PATA cable and HDD configuration was done in master and slave drives. Good copy of cassette is called master tape. Key that can open many locks is called master key. Around my society we do not insult other people calling slave.

I assume I am new to racism than I am a racist.

Now I know more and I will avoid the usage.

[–] Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

I'm glad you never experienced this yourself, and hope you never will. It's perfectly understandable that you don't know something like this that you haven't seen before, but I'm glad that now that you're aware of the context, you're willing to adjust your worldview to accommodate the new knowledge.

This entire conversation is honestly very Western centric, but I hope it can be useful to you in other ways as we continue adjusting the English terminology we use around technology going forward.