you know the Fast and the Furious movies? at least the original 2 or 3, those cars were all tricked out with neon lights, decals, nitros, custom exhaust, all that? most of those cars were Japanese cars that were heavily modified. Basically it was a derogetory term for modifying a piece of shit car to look good, Especally if it was a Japanese car. you slap a body kit on it, neon lights, slap in some bucket seats, switch out the exhaust, but you dont’ touch the engine. that’s a “Ricer” it’s not a good thing in that specific car culture.
So for whatever reason someone at some point was modifying their Desktop Environment or Window Manager with neon borders and all that and decided to call it a Rice. You’re essentially modifying your OS without touching the “engine” so to speak. You’re just slapping a body kit, neon lights, some bucket seats etc onto your operating system.
yeah some consider it a racist term because it originally applied specifically to Japanese Cars. i.e. Asian cars, Asians like eating Rice, POS modified Car isn’t a “Racer” it’s a “Ricer”.
I once had to explain to my father why calling Asian sport bikes “rice rockets” is racist. He didn’t get it and went on to talk about how he got “gyped” by a guy trying to sell him one when he was in his 30s.
It takes a lot of introspection and work to get past culturally ingrained bigotry. I was a teenager in the 90s. Back then, and still through the 2000’s via internet culture, everyone and everything was a “fag”. I didn’t recognize that it was a problem until way later than I should have, and I still almost say it sometimes. I don’t have any problem with gay people. It’s just a weird form of muscle memory. People don’t understand that listeners don’t know what their intentions are. They just know what you said. You gotta internalize that fact before you can change your language.
Good question. It was the late 90s so it wasn’t like we were living in Jim Crow but there was no where near the same amount of recognition of the difficulties people of color face like we see now. He never intentionally racist. On the contrary, I do remember him spending a night in the drunk tank after got into a parking lot brawl between him and Puerto Rican friends and some assholes who called them a bunch of slurs.
The etymology is from a racist street racing term. In the street racing scene, the garishly over-done modifications (often combined with anime wraps) were popular in parts of Asia. So those styles of cars were referred to as “rice burners” when Asian drivers inevitably ended up at car meets. And modifying the car in such a way was called “ricing” it. As in, Asians eat a lot of rice, and it looks like an Asian modified that car.
That’s pretty much it. That’s the etymology. Some people will try to claim that “RICE” is actually an acronym. But that’s a common lie, to allow those people to continue using the racist term without feeling guilty. The term “rice burner” existed long before the backronym did. And somehow, the term eventually found its way into the Linux world. And Linux fanboys will screech about how it’s not a racist term, but it is.
The way I understand it, it’s specifically not to gain more speed, but completely focused on aesthetics. Themes, background, and other touches to make it look pretty, and perhaps some UX aspects too.
Isn’t ricing when you make a car look fast when it’s actually just a piece of shit? That’s how I’ve always heard it used until linux nerds started applying it to their GUI systems.
That’s my understanding. Racist shit. Back when I was super into classic cars and muscle/pony shit, I had a friend say “I don’t know about you, but I like my cars to run on gas, not rice.”
Dumb question: What exactly is “ricing”? I’d also be curious to learn about the etymology of that term…
Incorrect, or dumb use of a term originating from modifying Japanese car to street racing, also racist term.
Occasionally people with backronym it as “race inspired cosmetic enhancements” so they can continue saying it with plausible deniability
That’s animal cruelty
you know the Fast and the Furious movies? at least the original 2 or 3, those cars were all tricked out with neon lights, decals, nitros, custom exhaust, all that? most of those cars were Japanese cars that were heavily modified. Basically it was a derogetory term for modifying a piece of shit car to look good, Especally if it was a Japanese car. you slap a body kit on it, neon lights, slap in some bucket seats, switch out the exhaust, but you dont’ touch the engine. that’s a “Ricer” it’s not a good thing in that specific car culture.
So for whatever reason someone at some point was modifying their Desktop Environment or Window Manager with neon borders and all that and decided to call it a Rice. You’re essentially modifying your OS without touching the “engine” so to speak. You’re just slapping a body kit, neon lights, some bucket seats etc onto your operating system.
Read the same in the past. If I remember correctly, someone added “Ricer” and “Rice” is racism, too.
yeah some consider it a racist term because it originally applied specifically to Japanese Cars. i.e. Asian cars, Asians like eating Rice, POS modified Car isn’t a “Racer” it’s a “Ricer”.
I once had to explain to my father why calling Asian sport bikes “rice rockets” is racist. He didn’t get it and went on to talk about how he got “gyped” by a guy trying to sell him one when he was in his 30s.
It takes a lot of introspection and work to get past culturally ingrained bigotry. I was a teenager in the 90s. Back then, and still through the 2000’s via internet culture, everyone and everything was a “fag”. I didn’t recognize that it was a problem until way later than I should have, and I still almost say it sometimes. I don’t have any problem with gay people. It’s just a weird form of muscle memory. People don’t understand that listeners don’t know what their intentions are. They just know what you said. You gotta internalize that fact before you can change your language.
It’s one of those things, is it worse that it’s used without understanding that it was initially a racist term?
Good question. It was the late 90s so it wasn’t like we were living in Jim Crow but there was no where near the same amount of recognition of the difficulties people of color face like we see now. He never intentionally racist. On the contrary, I do remember him spending a night in the drunk tank after got into a parking lot brawl between him and Puerto Rican friends and some assholes who called them a bunch of slurs.
So what’s the American or European equivalent? Potatoing? Corning?
Corning sounds kinky
Fried rice?
Excessively modifying your system, most commonly in how it looks, spending dozens of hours making it look just right.
The etymology is from a racist street racing term. In the street racing scene, the garishly over-done modifications (often combined with anime wraps) were popular in parts of Asia. So those styles of cars were referred to as “rice burners” when Asian drivers inevitably ended up at car meets. And modifying the car in such a way was called “ricing” it. As in, Asians eat a lot of rice, and it looks like an Asian modified that car.
That’s pretty much it. That’s the etymology. Some people will try to claim that “RICE” is actually an acronym. But that’s a common lie, to allow those people to continue using the racist term without feeling guilty. The term “rice burner” existed long before the backronym did. And somehow, the term eventually found its way into the Linux world. And Linux fanboys will screech about how it’s not a racist term, but it is.
The more I know, thanks!
As I understand it, ricing a machine is to excessively modify it to achieve more speed, users of Gentoo being the origina ricers in the Linux world.
The term itself has dubious and arguably racist origins, in the world of modification of Japanese cars for street racing.
The way I understand it, it’s specifically not to gain more speed, but completely focused on aesthetics. Themes, background, and other touches to make it look pretty, and perhaps some UX aspects too.
Isn’t ricing when you make a car look fast when it’s actually just a piece of shit? That’s how I’ve always heard it used until linux nerds started applying it to their GUI systems.
I thought ricing was when asian street food vendors would make their small food carts all fancy looking?
I thought that it came from people buying cars from Japan and then modifying them both for more horsepower and to look cool?
That’s my understanding. Racist shit. Back when I was super into classic cars and muscle/pony shit, I had a friend say “I don’t know about you, but I like my cars to run on gas, not rice.”