I'd learned about this last week, and this stuff is a bunch of Wikipedia searches so forgive me if I miss anything :]
Similar to git master and whitelist/blacklist having addressed racist origins, I've just learned that "ricing" -- i.e. way-far-from-default, colorfully souped-up *nix customizations -- came from a derogatory word for Asian "riced out" cars.
(click to enlarge spot where I came to learn about this)
Example in the lemmy.ml/c/linux community.
The linked Wikipedia article doesn't list *nix ricing specifically, but it's probably not a far reach -- for example, tech's master-slave came from cars too.
Now I'm not here to start a debate on whether the term itself is bad. The arguments are done to death and predictable (old thread~hope~ ~I~ ~can~ ~link~ ~here~). Rather, I posit that we could probably invent a new term if we forced it hard enough.
For example, 4chan forcibly invented the use of the ok hand for "white power", as a collective prank (Wikipedia).
Further, Tumblr invented 'then beg' as an insult response to 'I beg your pardon/to differ'. (click to enlarge)
Based on Pukicho.
So why can't Lemmy invent something too?
Here are some earlier takes. (click to enlarge for source, but they are listed below anyway)
I surmise it has to be (1) somewhat unique and (2) short and nounable/verbable.
- Customization doesn't fit -- it's too broad. Changing the wallpaper is a customization -- diagonalizing your screen is a rice (term to be replaced...).
- Bespoke doesn't fit either. That's for a duct-tape script you hack together.
- Pimping out... is not a good alternative. It preexists^(citation^ ^needed?)^ and has inertia but it's not any better.
- Souping up... doesn't roll off the tongue so much. But it's food-related (and thus not far from "rice"). Though I can't see myself saying "Yo, check out this epic soup."
Brainstorming welcome :P
I removed this because it has nothing to do with linux specifically, and as expected, it brought out a lot of people defending the use of this historically racist term, and /asablackman'ing it.
I've reinstated it and removed the offending comments for now.
Also I don't know why this needs a discussion at all. There's hundreds of words in english for something that looks good, and you can be more specific about it : snazzy, sleek, cool, streamlined, nifty, retro
In one of which an Asian dude literally says it's not used as a derogatory anymore. Talk about being offended for others
An stranger on the internet just gave you license to say a historically racist term, how convenient for you. Next they'll be some /r/asablackman posters saying its okay for you to use the n-word, because it doesn't bother them.
Should they've included a selfie or an id pic? Because when black ppl use that n-word you're trying to draw parallels with (which, BTW, is still a derogatory towards a person and has no other meanings, as far as I'm aware) nobody gets offended. And, aside from the use of the "r-word", their comment was a valid opinion on topic asking for that opinion
Yeah but it doesn't affect me and I'm fine with using a racist term because I choose not to think about it. That should make it fine for everyone.
I'm not racist I'm just so tired of all this anti-racist stuff @[email protected]