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Unixporn @lemmy.ml blashork [she/her] @hexbear.net

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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  • 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.

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